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Ozark Superstitions
vJzark
Superstitions
VANCE RANDOLPH
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS
NEW YORK 1947
COPYEIGHT 1947 BY COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PEE8S
PUBLISHED IN GREAT BRITAIN AND INDIA BY
GEOFFREY CUMBERLEGE, OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON AND BOMBAY
DECORATIONS BY LOUISE E. JEFFERSON
MANUFACTURED IK THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
TO THE MEMORY OF G. STANLEY HALL
Preface
For obvious reasons it is not practicable to
credit every item in this collection to the individual from whom
it was obtained, as I have done in Ozark Folksongs and some of
my other books. But for the sake of the record, I set down here
the names of certain persons who have directly furthered my
investigations. Among these must be listed Mrs. Anna Bacon,
Galena, Mo. ; Dr. Charles Hillman Brough, Little Rock, Ark. ;
Miss Nancy Clemens, Springfield, Mo. ; Dr. George E. Hastings,
Fayetteville, Ark. ; Mr. Charles S. Hiatt, Cassville, Mo. ; Mrs.
Dorn Higgins, Sulphur Springs, Ark. ; Mr. Earl Keithley, Day,
Mo. ; Mr. Lewis Kelley, Cyclone, Mo. ; Mr. Maurice Lamberson,
Bentonville, Ark. ; Mr. Cass Little, Anderson, Mo. ; Mr. Ernest
Long, Joplin, Mo.; Mrs. May Kennedy McCord, Springfield,
Mo. ; Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Mahnkey, Mincy, Mo. ; Mrs. Mabel
E. Mueller, Holla, Mo. ; Mrs. Geraldine Parker, St. Louis, Mo. ;
Miss Rubey Poyner, Southwest City, Mo.; Mr. Otto Ernest
Rayburn, Eureka Springs, Ark. ; Dr. Oakley St. John, Pine-
ville, Mo.; Mr. Clyde Sharp, Pack, Mo.; Mr. Elbert Short,
Crane, Mo. ; Mrs. Isabel Spradley, Van Buren, Ark. ; Mr. Fred
Starr, Greenland, Ark. ; Mrs. Olga Trail, Farmington, Ark. ;
Mrs. Ruth H. Tyler, Neosho, Mo. ; Mr. John Turner White,
Jefferson City, Mo. ; Mrs. Marie Wilbur, Pineville, Mo. ; and
Dr. J. H. Young, Galena, Mo. I wish to acknowledge my indebt-
edness to these people, but they are in no way responsible for my
interpretation of the material, nor for the general character of
the book.
of the preliminary studies upon which this volume is
d were printed as early as 1927, in the Journal of American
viii PREFACE
Folklore. My books The Ozarks and Ozark Mountain Folks,
published by the Vanguard Press in 1931 and 1932, contained
accounts of backwoods folk belief. Many supernatural narra-
tives, and some notes on water witching, first appeared in Ozark
Ghost Stories and Tall Tales from the Ozarks, published and
copyrighted by E. Haldeman-Julius, of Girard, Kansas.
Several yarns about witchcraft were printed in Folk-Say, a
regional annual edited by B. A. Botkin and brought out by the
University of Oklahoma Press ; other related items first saw the
light in the quarterly University Review, published at the Uni-
versity of Kansas Citj\ I am grateful to the owners of these
copyrights for permission to reprint the material here.
V. R.
Galena, Missouri
June 10, 1946
Contents
1. INTRODUCTION 3
2. WEATHER SIGNS 10
3. CROPS AND LIVESTOCK 34
4. HOUSEHOLD SUPERSTITIONS 53
5. WATER WITCHES 82
6. MOUNTAIN MEDICINE 92
7. THE POWER DOCTORS 121
8. COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE 162
9. PREGNANCY AND CHILDBIRTH 192
10. GHOST STORIES 211
11. ANIMALS AND PLANTS 240
12. OZARK WITCHCRAFT 264
13. DEATH AND BURIAL 801
14. MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS 328
BIBLIOGRAPHY 343
INDEX 353
Ozark Superstitions
1. Introduction
The people who live in the Ozark coun-
try of Missouri and Arkansas were, until
very recently, the most deliberately un-
progressive people in the United States. Descended from pio-
neers who came West from the Southern Appalachians at the
beginning of the nineteenth century, they made little contact
with the outer world for more than a hundred years. They seern
like foreigners to the average urban American, but nearly all
of them come of British stock, and many families have lived
in America since colonial days. Their material heirlooms are
few, but like all isolated illiterates they have clung to the old
songs and obsolete sayings and outworn customs of their an-
cestors.
Sophisticated visitors sometimes regard the "hillbilly" as a
simple child of nature, whose inmost thoughts and motivations
may be read at a glance. Nothing could be farther from the
truth. The hillman is secretive and sensitive beyond anything
that the average city dweller can imagine, but he isn't simple.
His mind moves in a tremendously involved system of signs and
omens and esoteric auguries. He has little interest in the men-
tal procedure that the moderns call science, and his ways of
arranging data and evaluating evidence are very different
from thoj^e currently favored in the world beyond the hill-
tops. frhe Ozark hillfolk have often been described as
^
superstitious people in America. Tt Ts "true" tnat" some of them
Have retained certain ancient nofTohs which have been discarded
arid forgotten in more progressive sections of the United
States. }
4 INTRODUCTION
It has been said that the Ozarker got his folklore from the
Negro, but the fact is that Negroes were never numerous in
the hill country, and there are many adults in the Ozarks to-
day who have never even seen a Negro. Another view is that
the hillman's superstitions are largely of Indian origin, and
there may be a measure of truth in this; the pioneers did
mingle freely with the Indians, and some of our best Ozark
families still boast of their Cherokee blood. My own feeling is
that most of the hillman's folk beliefs came with his ancestors
from England or Scotland. I believe that a comparison of my
material with that recorded by British antiquarians will sub-
stantiate this opinion.
The collection of some t} r pes of folklore riddles, party
games, or folksongs, for example is a comparatively easy
matter, even in the Ozark country. If a hillman knows an old
ballad or game song any reasonably diplomatic collector can
induce him to sing it, or at least to recite the words. But the
mention of superstition raises the question of one's personal
belief a matter which the Ozarker does not care to discuss
with "furriners." The stranger who inquires about love charms
or witchcraft will meet only blank looks and derisive laughter.
Authentic data in this field cannot be gathered by running
"Old-Timer" columns in newspapers, because the people who
contribute to such columns are not typical backwoods folk
at all ; the real old-timers seldom read newspapers, much less
write letters for publication. The questionnaire method, too,
has been tried at our whistle-stop colleges and among rural
schoolmarms without any conspicuous success. The man who
wants to study the Ozark superstitions must live with the
Ozark people year after year and gradually absorb folklore
through the rind, as it were. The information obtained JB this
manner is more trustworthy, in my opinion, than that elicited
by any sort of direct questioning.
I first visited the Ozark country in 1899, and since 1920
I have spent practically all of my time here, living in many
INTRODUCTION 5
parts of the region, sometimes in the villages and sometimes
in the wildest and most isolated "hollers." I fished and fought
and hunted and danced and gambled with my backwoods neigh-
bors; I traveled the ridge roads in a covered wagon, consort-
ing with peddlers and horse traders and yarb doctors and
moonshiners ; I learned to chew tobacco, and dabbled in vil-
lage politics, and became a deputy sheriff, and solicited local
items for the newspapers. By marriage and otherwise I asso-
ciated myself with several old backwoods families, in both
Missouri and Arkansas. I spared no effort to become intimately
acquainted with Ozarkers of the hillbilly type, and succeeded
insofar as such intimacy is possible to one who was born a
lowlander.
The Ozarker's wealth of folk material fascinated me from
the very beginning. I carried scraps of newsprint in my pocket,
and along with locals for the paper I recorded other things
that interested me folksongs, tall tales, backwoods jokes, rid-
dles, party games, dialect, old customs, and superstitions. This
stuff was later typed on cards and placed in a trunk which I
had converted into a filing cabinet, indexed and classified so
that I could put my finger on any given item at a moment's
notice. I made no secret of the fact that I was gathering old
songs and intended to publish a book of them some day, but
the other material was collected more or less surreptitiously.
The cards in the file marked SUPERSTITIONS accumulated
very slowly for the first three or four years, but my neighbors
gradually became accustomed to seeing me around, and began
to talk a bit more freely in my presence. In 1924 some witch-
craft material which came to my attention seemed so extraor-
dinary that I suspected my friends were greening me green-
ing is a dialect word which means spoofing. It was only after
checking and double-checking these tales, and getting almost
identical items from different people in widely separated sec-
tions of the hill country, that I began to realize the extent to
which superstition still flourished in this region.
6 INTRODUCTION
In all the years of my collecting I have never known a hill-
man to admit a belief in anything which he regarded as super-
stition. "I aint superstitious myself," one old man told me,
"but some things that folks call superstitious is just as true
as God's own gospel !" Most of the real old-timers adhere to
traditions wild and strange, and the fact that many of them
contradict each other matters not at all. Nobody could pos-
sibly believe, or even remember, all of the items listed in this
book, but nearly every one of them is credited by hillfolk
within my own circle of friends and neighbors. The man who
laughs at witchcraft and supernatural warning is found to be
a firm believer in the moon's influence upon crops, while the
woman who doesn't believe in dummy suppers takes the ques-
tion of prenatal "marking" very seriously indeed.
One might expect to find a definite negative correlation be-
tween superstition and intelligence, or at least between super-
stition and education, but this does not seem to be the case.
Perhaps the most famous water witch who ever lived in south-
west Missouri was a physician, a graduate of Washington
University, and a man of really extraordinary attainments.
One of the most credulous and superstitious hillmen I ever knew
was intelligent enough to learn surveying and had sufficient
book learning to enable him to teach the district school with
unprecedented success.
It must be admitted that some of the items in this collection
are folktales rather than superstitions proper. That is, they
are not really believed by intelligent adults, but are repeated
to children just as parents elsewhere tell the story of Santa
Claus or assure their offspring that rabbits lay parti-colored
eggs on Easter Sunday. The old sayin' that killing a toad
will make the cows give bloody milk, for example, is probably
just a way of teaching children to let toads alone; the farmer
knows that toads destroy insects, and he likes to see them
around his doorstep on summer evenings. Every backwoods
child has heard a little rhyme to the effect that one who
INTRODUCTION 7
defecates in a path will get a "sty" on his posterior a notion
doubtless promulgated by barefoot housewives who wish to
keep the catwalks clean. Perhaps the children don't really be-
lieve all this either, but it sometimes amuses them to pretend
that they do, and thus the stories are preserved and trans-
mitted from one generation to the next. But even here I do not
presume to define the exact limits of credulity. Sometimes it
appears that backwoods parents begin by telling outrageous
whoppers to their children and end by half believing the wild-
est of these tales themselves.
Many of the civic boosters in the Ozark towns are sensitive
about their hillbilly background and regard anybody who men-
tions the old customs or folk beliefs in the light of a public
enemy. This sentiment is reflected in the Ozark newspapers,
particularly in the smaller cities. An address of mine, de-
livered before the State Historical Society at Columbia, Mis-
souri, in 1938, offended people all over the Ozarks because it
dealt in part with backwoods superstition. Once in Springfield,
Missouri, during a dinner at which I had been invited to speak
by the Chamber of Commerce, a casual reference to super-
stition so moved the president of that body that he suddenly
sprang up and denounced me and all my works. Another time,
in the dining room of a hotel at Joplin, Missouri, an old gen-
tleman cursed me at the top of his voice and even made as if
to strike me with his stick, because I had published something
about Ozark superstition in Esquire. Others who have spoken
or written on the subject have had similar experiences. The
general feeling is that the persistence of the old folklore is
somehow discreditable to the whole region, and the less said
about it the better.
A Little Rock attorney who read this book in manuscript
says that "it applies only to a few ignorant old folks who
live in the most backward and isolated sections of the Ozark
country." Well, it is true that much of my information was
obtained from elderly people in the back hills. The educated
8 INTRODUCTION
young folk are certainly less concerned with witchcraft and
the like than were their parents and grandparents. And yet
I have known college boys, proud possessors of dinner jackets
and fraternity pins, to say and do things which would be
quite inexplicable to anyone not familiar with the superstitions
of their childhood. And there was a pretty girl once, a senior
at one of our best Ozark colleges, who obtained her heart's
desire by a semipublic "conjuration" which would not seem
out of place in a medieval book on demonology.
The wildest kind of superstition was accepted as a matter of
course by the grandparents of these backwoods collegians,
and resistance to change has always been the chief regional
characteristic of the Ozark people. The principle of organic
evolution has been pretty well accepted everywhere for a long
time, but as I write these lines it is still against the law to
teach evolution at the University of Arkansas.
A Missouri politician writes me that "the old superstitions
you describe may have existed in my district fifty years ago.
In fact, I know personally that some of the most fantastic
did exist as late as 1900. But you may rest assured that the
folks down there do not believe any such nonsense today." To
this I can only reply that nearly all of my material was
gathered since 1920, and that many of the most striking items
in the collection came from the locality indicated in this man's
letter.
It is difficult to see why our civic leaders and politicians
should be so concerned about these matters. Surely they must
know that people in other sections of the country, even in
the great cities, have superstitions of their own. Some very
eminent gentlemen in Washington are known to consult me-
diums and fortunetellers on occasion, and there are many
women in New York who still believe in astrology and nu-
merology.
I think that the hillfolk are somewhat less superstitious to-
day than when I began this study, twenty-five years ago. Much
INTRODUCTION 9
of my best material came from men and women who were old
in the 1920's, and nearly all of them are dead now. One has
only to compare the young people with their grandparents, or
the isolated settlements with the villages along our new motor
highways, to appreciate the present status of folklore in the
Ozark country.
Wherever railroads and highways penetrate, wherever news-
papers and movies and radios are introduced, the people
gradually lose their distinctive local traits and assume the drab
color which characterizes conventional Americans elsewhere.
The Ozarkers are changing rather rapidly just now, and it
may be that a few more years of progress will find them think-
ing and acting very much like country folk in other parts of
the United States. This standardizing transformation is still
far from complete, however. A great body of folk belief dies
very slowly, and I suspect that some vestiges of backwoods
superstition will be with us for a long time to come.
2. Weather Signs
and superstitions about the
weather naturally seem important to a
people who live by tilling the soil, and
are taken very seriously in the Ozark country. There is no deny-
ing that some old hillmen are extraordinarily acute in their
short-range predictions of rain and frost. The old-timer gen-
erally speaks dogmatically of bad luck, death bells, ghosts,
witches and the like) But he becomes a bit more cautious in
discussing the weather. "Nobody ever claimed that them old
signs was always right," a gentleman in Jasper county, Mis-
souri, said reasonably. "But I've been a-watchin' the weather
for sixty years, an' I believe these here goosebone prophets are
just about as good as the government men we've got nowa-
days."
The spotty nature of the Ozark weather, with conditions
varying widely between one hollow and another a few miles dis-
tant, may also give the local weather predictor a slight edge.
"Them government weathermen do pretty well on a flat prairie,
like Kansas or western Oklahoma," an old man told me, "but
they aint worth a damn in a hilly country."
The most colorful official of the United States Weather
Bureau in the Ozarks is C. C. Williford, who has been giving
a daily broadcast over a local station at Springfield, Missouri,
since 1933. Williford differs from most of his colleagues in
his readiness to argue with the "groundhog watchers" and
other defenders of superstition. He takes a lot of ribbing
about this, particularly when the goosebone meteorologists
predict the weather more accurately than the government
WEATHER SIGNS 11
weather prophets, as sometimes happens. The backwoods Chris-
tians known as "Holy Rollers," in Taney county, Missouri,
have more than once held public prayers for "that feller in
Springfield that lies so much about the weather." Williford
gets many astonishing items by mail; as an example of Ozark
innocence in these matters, here is a letter dated Oct. 21, 1939:
We thought maybe you would say something about the moon falling
Sunday night. There might not have been many saw it but we sure did.
There was six of us witnessed it. It looked to be about 1 or 2 hours
high when it just suddenly turned over and fell like a star would
fall, making a ball of fire which could be seen down low for 5 or 10
minutes. No one around here ever heard of the moon falling, even
people 50 years old. Some wouldn't believe it. It was between 7:30
and 8 o'clock. If you or anyone else ever heard of this before I wish
you would please mention it.
Paul Murrell
Strafford, Mo. Route 3
To this communication Mr. Williford replied soberly that
what Paul Murrell and his friends saw was probably a pilot
balloon from the Weather Bureau, since one was lost that
night. The records show, he added, that at the hour mentioned
the new moon was almost invisible a faint sickle riding low
on the horizon. An account of this episode was printed in the
Springfield News # Leader, Oct. 22, 1939, under a two-column
head: "Extra! The Moon Falls on Strafford Route Three!"
There are so many rain signs, and they vary so widely in
different sections of the Ozarks, that one frequently encounters
contradictions and differences of opinion as to their proper in-
terpretation. One old fellow told me that when the tall grass
is bone-dry in the morning he "allus figgered on rain afore
night" but he also insisted that a heavy dew is one of the most
reliable rain signs known. Some time later, during a prolonged
drouth, I showed him that neither statement had any great
merit, but he was not at all disturbed. "All signs fail in dry
weather," quoth he and seemed perfectly satisfied to let it go
at that. And even Will Talbott, who used to be the govern-
12 WEATHER SIGNS
ment weatherman of Greene county, Missouri, in 1930, was
quoted as saying "the only sure thing about the weather is
that a dry spell always ends with a rain."
Many common indications of rain are found in the activities
of animals. If rabbits are seen playing in the dusty road, if
dogs suddenly begin to eat grass, if cats sneeze or wash behind
their ears or lick their fur against the grain, if large numbers
of field-mice are seen running in the open, if sheep turn their
backs to the wind, if wolves howl before sunset, the hillman
expects a shower. Any backwoods farmer will tell you that
when a hog carries a piece of wood in its mouth there is bad
weather a-comin*, and I am almost persuaded that hogs do
sometimes pile up leaves and brush for nests several hours
before a storm.
(When horses' tails suddenly appear very large, by reason
of the hairs standing erect, it means that a drouth will soon
be broken. If cattle and horses refuse to drink in very dry
weather, the farmer expects a cloudburst. When horses sud-
denly stop feeding and begin scratching themselves on trees
or fences, it is a sign of heavy rains. Farmers who live in the
river bottoms are alarmed when they see dogs or cats carrying
their young to higher ground, believing that these migrations
indicate floods or cloudbursts/
Mrs. Mabel E. Mueller, of Rolla, Missouri, says that "if
the cat lies in a coil, with head and stomach up, bad weather
is coming, but if it yawns and stretches, the weather will be
good."
(Some country women believe that chickens are somehow able
to tell what the weather is to be for several days in advance.
When chickens or turkeys stand with their backs to the wind,
so that their feathers are ruffled, a storm is on the way. If
hens spread their tail feathers and oil them conspicuously, it is
sure to rain very soon)
A rooster's persistent crowing at nightfall is regarded as a
sign that there will be rain before morning :
WEATHER SIGNS 13
If a cock crows when he goes to bed,
He'll get up with a wet head.
This jingle is evidently very old and is one of the few instances
in which the male fowl is called a cock in the Ozark speech.
In ordinary conversation the hillman says crower or rooster
instead.
In front of my cabin near Sulphur Springs, Arkansas, a
rooster crowed repeatedly at high noon. "What's that a sign
of?" I asked an Ozark girl who sat beside me. "Oh, that aint
no sign at all," she answered. "I reckon he's just a-crowin'
up company."
In this same connection Mrs. Mueller says that her
neighbors are much impressed when chickens suddenly go to
roost outside the henhouse. One might suppose that, if the
fowls really know what they are about, this would be an in-
dication of fair weather, but the people near Holla regard it as
a sure sign of rain. A storm is expected, too, if the chickens
are seen going to roost earlier than usual. Mrs. Mueller says
also that "if chickens stand on the woodpile and pick their
feathers, rain is on the way."
(When chickens and other fowls are seen feeding in the fields
during a shower, it means that the rainy weather will continue
for at least twenty-four hours longer. When ducks or geese
or guineas suddenly become very noisy, without any visible
reason, it is a sure sign of rain. When crows, or woodpeckers,
or hawks make more racket than usual, the hillman expects
rain in twenty-four hours or less. If robins suddenly begin
to sing near the cabin, when they are not accustomed to sing
there, the housewife prepares for a shower. The call of the
yellow-billed cuckoo, which the Ozarker knows as the rain crow,
is widely recognized as a sign of wet weather. If a big owl
hoots in the daytime, or calls loudly and persistently near the
house at night, there will be a heavy rain within three days^
When kingfishers and bank swallows nest in holes near the
water, the hillman expects a dry season; if these birds nest
14 WEATHER SIGNS
high above the stream, the hillfolk prepare for much rain and
flooded rivers. If wild ducks nest close to the water's edge a
fairly dry summer is expected ; if they make their nests farther
back, the Ozarker looks for a wet season.
If quail are found sunning themselves in coveys, or if brush
rabbits are lying in shallow, unprotected forms, the Ozarker
feels safe in expecting two or three days of pleasant weather.
The latter sign in particular inspires great confidence, and I
am almost persuaded that there may be something in it. I have
often seen farmers go out and flush two or three rabbits, and
examine their nests carefully before deciding to go on a jour-
ney.
It is generally believed that snakes particularly rattle-
snakes and copperheads become very active just before a
rain. Thus an abundance of snake trails in the dusty road is
regarded as a sign that a drouth will soon be broken.
The voices of tree toads always forecast a shower, accord-
ing to the old-timers. Men who hunt bullfrogs say that the
skin of these creatures turns dark about twelve hours before a
rain. Old rivermen claim that when they see a great many
fish coming to the surface and "stickin* out their noses," there
is sure to be a rainstorm in three or four hours.
When flies and mosquitoes suddenly swarm into a cabin, or
snails become very abundant, or spiders leave their shelters
and crawl aimlessly about, or glowworms shine brighter than
usual, or crickets chirp louder, or bees cluster closely about
the entrance to their hives, or a centipede appears where centi-
pedes are not usually seen all these are signs of an approach-
ing storm. When the burrows of ants and crawfish are "banked
up" about the entrance, the mountain man looks for a cloud-
burst, or a sudden rise in the water of the streams.
If the sun "rises red" it is a sign of rain, according to the
old rhyme:
When the morning sun is red
The ewe and the lamb go wet to bed.
WEATHER SIGNS 15
When the sun rises into an unusually clear sky, even if it isn't
red, many farmers expect showers before night. Others contend
that the meaning of this depends upon the season of the year
in summer a misty dawn means a dry spell, but in winter it
is a sign of rain.
A red sunset is supposed to promise at least twenty-four
hours of dry weather. If a dull blue line shows around the
horizon at sunset, one may expect rain the following day.
JVhen a "sundog" circle is seen about the sun, there will be
some radical change in the weather. Some say that a sundog
means a prolonged drouth. When a fringe of cloud hides the
sun, just before sunset, it is a sign of rain.)
A rainbow in the evening means clear weather, but a rainbow
in the morning indicates a storm within twenty-four hours. If
the weather clears between sundown and dawn there will be
more rain within forty-eight hours. When fog rises rapidly it
is always a sign of rain:
Fog goes up with a hop,
Rain comes down with a drop.
If a fog descends and seems to disappear into the ground, the
hillman expects several warm, bright days.
Lightning in the south is a dry-weather sign, while lightning
in any other direction usually indicates rain.
When the crescent moon rides on its back, with the horns
turned up, there will be no rain for some time. This is the
moon that will "hold water," the moon a feller can "hang a
powder horn on." When one of the horns seems much 'higher
than the other, the concavity will no longer hold water, and
one may expect rain shortly. If the moon remains low in the
southern sky, the old folks say that it is well to prepare for a
severe drouth.
uV. ring around the moon is said to be a sure sign of bad
weather usually rain or snow.) You can tell how many days
will elapse before the storm by counting the number of stars
16 WEATHER SIGNS
inside the circle; if there are no stars in the ring, the rain is
less than twenty-four hours away. There is a very general
notion that if it doesn't rain at the change of the moon, there
will be little rain until the moon changes again. In the midst
of a drouth, one of my neighbors remarked that it couldn't
rain until the new moon appeared. When the stars appear
faded and dim, some people say that a big rain is on the way,
no matter what the moon signs may be.
A great many hillfolk believe that an abrupt drop in the
water line of a spring or well is a sure indication that wet
weather is coming soon. When the surface of plowed ground
appears damp, or moisture seems to gather on the gravel in
dry gullies, a rain is expected within a few hours. Nearly all of
the old-timers seem to believe this. One of the most successful
and progressive farmers in my neighborhood told me that he
does not believe in many weather signs, but that he is prepared
to wager even money up to a thousand dollars that whenever
the flint-rocks in his field suddenly begin to sweat, there will
be some precipitation within twenty-four hours.
A man in Greene county, Missouri, has a cave on his place.
He says that when the roof of this cave begins to drip, after a
spell of dry weather, it always rains within two or three days.
He used to crawl into the cave, particularly at harvest time,
to see what sort of weather was coming.
^ When a housewife is boiling food in a kettle, and it seems
necessary to add more water than usual, she expects a rain
shortly) Mrs. Mabel E. Mueller, of Rolla, Missouri, says that
her neighbors watch the coffeepot if the coffee boils over too
often, they regard it as a sign of an approaching rain. The
lumping of table salt, the unusual creaking of chairs, the loud
sputtering of a kerosene lamp, an extraordinary amount of
crackling in a wood fire, the "warping up" of a rag carpet,
the sudden flabbiness of hitherto dry and crisp tobacco leaves
all these phenomena are supposed to indicate rain.
If the leaves of a tree turn up, so as to show the undersides
WEATHER SIGNS 17
which are usually lighter in color, the hillfolk expect a rain
within a few hours. When the upper blades of corn begin to
twist, as they do in very hot dry weather, many farmers pre-
dict rain. If dead limbs fall in the woods, with no perceptible
wind blowing, it is regarded as a sure sign of rain ; but when
an entire tree topples over, under the same conditions, it is not
so considered.
If oaks bud earlier than ash trees in the spring, a wet sum-
mer is expected ; if the ash buds first, look out for a drouth in
July and August.
It is said that certain flowers, which ordinarily close at dusk,
sometimes remain open all night this is a positive indication
that it will rain very shortly. A sudden appearance of toad-
stools or mushrooms is regarded as a sure sign of rain within
twelve hours. If a hillman sees thistledown or milkweed or other
hair-winged seeds flying in the air, when no breeze is otherwise
apparent, he predicts rain.
\ When rain falls while the sun is shining, it will be of short
duration "a sunny shower won't last an hour." A sunny
shower means that "the Devil is a-whuppin' his wife," accord-
ing to the old-timers, and is a sign that there will be more rain
on the following day. If drops of water hang on twigs or leaves
for a long time after a rain, you may be sure that more rain
is coming. It is said also that if one sees many large bubbles
in roadside pools after a rain, it means another shower within
a few hours. The belief that showers which begin early in the
morning do not last long is recorded in the old sayin':
Rain before seven
Shine before eleven.
Many hillfolk believe that large raindrops mean a brief shower,
while small drops indicate a long siege of rainy weather.
A series of hot days and cool nights, some old-timers say, is
a sign of a long dry spell to come. If it seems very warm in
the evening, and unusually cool next morning, the hillman con-
18 WEATHER SIGNS
eludes that a rain has "blowed over" or "went around," and
he expects three or four days of dry weather.
There are farmers in Arkansas who insist that the blood of
a murdered man bloodstains on a floor or garments will
liquefy even on dry sunshiny days, as a sign that a big rain is
coining. Burton Rascoe, who once lived in Seminole county,
Oklahoma, told me that this notion is common in many parts
of the South, and that the field hands on his father's farm
used to go to a cabin where a Negro had been shot and examine
the bloodstains on the planks to see whether a rain was about
due.
Many persons believe that twinges of rheumatism, unusual
soreness of corns and bunions, or attacks of sinus trouble inform
them when it is going to rain.
Country women say that when milk or cream sours sooner
than usual, a rain may be expected and they insist that this
works in fairly cold weather as well as in the heat of summer.
Also that the little globules of fat in a cup of coffee to which
cream has been added collect at the edges of the cup when a rain
is coming, and in the center when there is dry weather ahead.
Little whirlwinds in the dusty road are regarded by many as
sure signs of rain. If the wind blows suddenly and strongly from
the east, many old-timers expect a heavy rain soon.
People in some parts of Taney county, Missouri, live so far
from a settlement that they do not ordinarily hear trains or
motor cars or church bells. Once in a while, however, they do
hear these sounds, very faintly. When this happens, the people
expect a good rain before many days. It is generally believed,
in many sections of the Ozarks, that gunshots, church bells,
whistles and the like may be heard at a greater distance when
rain is approaching than when continued dry weather is in store.
A rain on Monday, according to some backwoods folk, means
that it will rain more or less every day that week. Others say
that if it rains on Monday there will be two more rainy days in
the week, and maybe three, but that Friday will be bright and
WEATHER SIGNS 19
fair. There is a common notion that Friday is always either the
fairest or the foulest day of the week. If the sun "sets clear" on
Tuesday, it is sure to rain before Friday. If the sun sets behind a
cloud on Tuesday, there will be showers before the next Tuesday.
If the sun "sets cloudy" on Thursday one looks for heavy rains
before Saturday night.
Many people insist that "the sun shines every Wednesday"
even if only for a moment, but if a Wednesday should pass
without a sunbeam, there will be some sudden, violent change
perhaps a cloudburst or a tornado.
When rain falls on the first Sunday in the month, most old-
timers expect showers on the three following Sundays. If it rains
on the first day of the month, at least twenty days of that month
will be wet. This is really taken seriously by farmers in some
localities, and they consider it in planting and cultivating their
crops.
A number of farmers in Greene county, Missouri, have told
me that, during the month of July, it never rains at night. One
old gentleman said he had watched the weather for nearly sixty
years and had never yet, during the month of July, known rain
to fall after dark or before dawn.
There is a common notion, in rural Arkansas, that it never
rains during dog days that is, the period in July and August
when Sirius the dog star is supposed to rise at dawn.
Many old-timers are obsessed with the notion that there is
always a big storm at Easter time. Mrs. May Kennedy McCord,
of Springfield, Missouri, writes : "I have lived to be 'over twenty-
one' in the Ozarks and I have never failed to see an Easter squall
yet. I believe if Easter came as late as the Fourth of July we
would still have that squall. When I was a girl we used to always
depend on it for our Easter picnics, and dread it." There is
also the common belief that if it rains on Easter Sunday, the
seven Sundays following Easter will be rainy too.
It is said that the last Friday and Saturday of each month
rule the weather for the next month that is, if the last Friday
20 WEATHER SIGNS
and Saturday in May are wet or cloudy days, the month of June
will be wet or cloudy.
I have known hillfolk who more or less seriously forecast the
weather for many months in advance by splitting open a persim-
mon seed in autumn. If the little growth at one end, between the
two halves of the seed, looks like a spoon, it means that the next
summer will be moist and warm, and that everybody will raise
bumper crops. But if the seed carries a tiny knife and fork,
instead of the spoon, the growing season will be unsatisfactory
and many crops will fail.
Some hillfolk claim to predict the rainfall, in a general fash-
ion, for a whole year in this wise: take twelve curved pieces of
raw onion, set them in a row, and place an equal amount of salt
in the hollow of each piece. The first piece represents January,
the second piece February, the third March, and so on. Let all
the pieces stand undisturbed over night. The one which contains
the largest amount of water in the morning shows which month
will have the greatest rainfall.
In any case, a dry March is supposed to mean plenty of rain
and good growin' weather later on. There is an old sayin' that
"a bushel of dust in March is worth a bushel of silver in Sep-
tember." Many farmers say that if dandelions bloom in April,
there will be both rain and hot weather in July.
Will Rice quotes a patriarch at St. Joe, Arkansas, as saying
that "for every 100-degree day in July there will be a 20-below
day in the following January." * Rice assures his readers that
this idea has come down from grandpappy's day, and that many
hillfolk believe it absolutely.
fJulj 2 is a mysterious and important day to some backwoods
weather prophets) The idea is that if rain falls on that day the
season will be moist and prosperous, but if it does not rain on
July 2 there will be no rain for six weeks.
July 15 is also an important date in connection with weather
i Rayburn'a Ozark Gfuide, Lonsdale, Arkansas (September-October, 1943),
p. 17.
WEATHER SIGNS 21
prediction, but I have been unable to get any definite informa-
tion about this. There are many hillfolk who insist that if No-
vember 1 is clear and cool, it means that big rains or snowstorms
are coming soon. Others say that if November 11 is cold, we
may expect a short, mild winter.
Some people think that the weather on December 25 is some-
how correlated with the rainfall and temperature of the fol-
lowing summer. A mild Christmas, according to many Ozark
farmers, always means a heavy harvest. A good season for the
crops is supposed to be bad for human life, however, hence the
old saying that "a green Christmas makes a fat graveyard."
If there is no wind on New Year's Day, the Ozarker expects a
very dry summer ; a fair breeze mans sufficient rainfall to make
a crop ; a real windstorm on New Year's is a sign of floods the
following autumn.
Many hillfolk believe that the first twelve days of January
rule the weather of the entire year. That is, if January 1 is
cloudy, the whole month of January will be cloudy; if Janu-
ary 2 is clear, the whole month of February will be clear; if
January 3 is stormy, the whole month of March will be stormy,
and so on. One finds Alice Curtice Moyer-Wing 2 rejoicing with
her neighbors that January 6 was dry, therefore June would
be dry enough to permit work in the cornfields ; it was fortunate
also that January 7 and 8 were wet, since that assured rain
enough in July and August to make a crop. Clink O'Neill, of
Day, Missouri, remarked to me that there may be something
in this theory "if it aint carried too far," adding that he doubted
whether snow on January 8 means that there will also be snow-
storms in August.
Mr. Ora McGrath, a farmer of Taney county, Missouri,
tells me that in his family it has always been believed that the
twelve "old days" the last twelve days in December rule the
coming year. Some old-timers near Farmington, Arkansas, think
that the "ruling days" are the last six days in December plus
2 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Jan, 28, 1917.
22 WEATHER SIGNS
the first six days in January. Still other hillfolk believe that it
is Old Christmas (January 6) and the eleven days which follow
Old Christmas which really determine the weather for the year.
The dates of the first and last frosts are matters of consid-
erable import to the Ozark farmer, and he has many curious
ideas about the prediction of these frosts. There is a very gen-
eral notion that katydids sing to bring on cold weather in the
fall. A writer in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Aug. 25, 1936)
says that the katydids "can sing for frost, and get it in about
two weeks," but the old-timers say that it can't possibly be
done in less than six weeks. In some parts of Arkansas and Mis-
souri the farmers expect the first frost exactly six weeks after
the katydids' singing begins ; others say that nine weeks is the
correct figure, and many Missourians hold out for three months.
Mr. Elbert Short, of Crane, Missouri, says that it was always
three months to the old folks in his neighborhood. Whatever the
period, nearly all Ozarkers feel that there must be something
in the katydid-frost theory. I know many hillfolk who listen for
the katydids and arrange their agricultural schedules accord-
ingly, and I have interviewed very few old-timers who did not
believe in this sign to a certain extent.
An old man in Washington county, Arkansas, told me that
he always marked on the calendar the date when he saw the first
Devil's-darning-needle the walking-stick insect, that is. His
prediction was that the first real frost comes just six weeks
later, and he swore he had missed it only twice in twenty-seven
years.
In Taney county, Missouri, they say that the first killing
frost comes ten weeks after the "locusts begin to holler" the
locust or jarfly is really a cicada. The locusts usually began to
holler about the Fourth of July, when I lived in Taney county,
but the first killing frost, in the average year, doesn't come to
the Ozarks before the middle of October.
There seems to be some correlation between the date at which
deer change their coats and the time of the first frost. In south-
WEATHER SIGNS 23
west Missouri, in 1943, it was said that fawns "lost their spots"
about the middle of July; old-timers who observed this all
agreed that it indicated an early fall.
Butterflies seen late in the autumn are signs that cold weather
will be here very soon. The same is true of big woolly caterpil-
lars. The intricate designs made by the tiny larvae that work
inside leaves are said to be significant in weather prediction, but
I have been unable to learn just how to read their signs.
Many Ozarkers tell me that it never frosts until the cockle-
burs are ripe nobody ever saw a frostbitten cocklebur. As
long as green cockleburs are in evidence, one may be sure that
there will be no frost for several weeks. It is said that persons
who suffer from hay fever are reliable weather prophets the
first attack of the season always comes just ninety days before
the first frost. When angleworms and grubs are found close to
the surface there is no danger of frost. When crab grass lies
flat on the ground, many country folk say that there'll be a
frost within twenty-four hours.
I have known old-timers in Carroll county, Arkansas and in
Taney county, Missouri, who believe that thunder in February
always means frost on the corresponding date in May ; that is,
if it thunders on February 12, there'll be a frost on May 12,
and so on. Others contend that there are always as many frosts
in May as there are thunderclaps in February but do not insist
that the dates must correspond exactly.
Several old hillfolk tell me that the number of fogs in August
is always equal to the number of snows in the following winter.
Some say that the number of days the first snow remains on the
ground indicates the number of snows to be expected during the
winter. Another view is that the whole thing depends upon the
date of the first snowfall. One man told me that if the first snow
falls on December 1 it means that there will be twenty-four
snows altogether. "What if the first snow came on November
sixteenth?" I asked. "Then thar'll be a hunderd an' seventy-six,"
he answered after a moment's thought but refused to tell me
24 WEATHER SIGNS
how he arrived at these conclusions. Another old-timer whom I
consulted gave me the same figures for these two dates, adding
that every man should obtain the method of "figgerin' it out"
from the elders of his own family, and that it would be very
bad luck for him to tell me about it. I "figgered it out" for myself
later on, however; one simply multiplies the number of the
month by the number of the day, and in case the latter is less
than fifteen doubles the result.
Mrs. Mabel E. Mueller, of Holla, Missouri, tells me that
people in her neighborhood count the number of sunny days
between July 1 and September 1 and multiply by two this
gives you the number of freezing cold days to be expected the
following winter.
Some old folks take careful note of the age of the moon, at
the time the first snow falls. It is said that the number of days
the moon is old, at that time, is always equal to the number of
snows which will come that winter.
The deepest snow of the winter, according to some Ozarkers,
is forecast by the height to which the brush rabbits gnaw the
sassafras sprouts in the fall. I have heard this mentioned in all
seriousness at least fifty times, from Mena, Arkansas, to the
suburbs of St. Louis. But I do not think that the genuine old-
timers take much stock in it. Personally, I am not even sure that
brush rabbits are accustomed to gnaw sassafras sprouts in the
autumn.
There is an old saying that "clouds on frost means bad
weather," and many believe that when a heavy frost is accom-
panied or immediately followed by a cloudy sky, it is well to
prepare for severe storms and lower temperatures.
Nearly all of the old-timers believe that when a frost comes
in cloudy weather it is less harmful to crops than a frost in
clear weather. Many insist that a frost in the light or increase
of the moon is much less harmful than a frost in the dark or
waning of the moon. Some go so far as to say that fruit is never
WEATHER SIGNS 25
killed by frost in the light of the moon, though anybody who has
lived in this country a few years can see that it isn't so.
I know deer hunters in Arkansas who think that if an autumn
campfire spits and sputters more than usual, it means that a
snowstorm is not far off. The firewood, they say, is "stompin'
snow." Mr. Elbert Short, of Crane, Missouri, agrees with the
deer hunters. "If your wood fries an' sings an' pops an' cracks,"
says he, "it's a sure sign that snow is a-comin'."
Children in the backwoods sometimes make a great show of
counting the nodules on cane, the knots on lilac bushes, the spots
on bass in September, the freckles on their left hands and so on,
to determine the number of cold spells to be expected in the
coming winter, but I do not believe that any of these signs are
taken very seriously by adult hillfolk.
Many of them do believe, however, that they can make some
general forecasts about winter weather by examining the breast-
bone of a wild goose killed in the fall. If the bone is thin and
more or less transparent, the winter will be mild; if the bone
is thick and opaque, the winter will be severe. If the bone is
white, there will be a great deal of snow ; if the bone is red, or has
many red spots, the winter may be very cold, but the snowfall
will be unusually light.
These goosebone weather prophets are still common in some
sections, and their predictions are often recorded and discussed
solemnly in the country newspapers. J. 0. Wadell, veteran news-
paperman of Springfield, Missouri, used to comment editorially
upon the weaknesses of the goosebone school of weather fore-
casting. In the Springfield Press, he wrote : "The fact that one
goose-bone may be thin and another from the same flock be
thick, as has often been demonstrated, has no effect upon the
old superstition. Folks believe it just the same." 3
The severity of the approaching winter is indicated by the
thickness of furs and feathers and cornshucks and so on. If hair
Oct. 31, 1930, p. 3.
26 WEATHER SIGNS
on muskrats, skunks, coons, and possums is unusually thick, the
hillman expects a hard winter. If goose feathers are "veined
close" it means severe weather ahead. Every backwoods child
has heard the little rhyme :
Onion skin mighty thin,
Easy winter comin' in.
Some old men tell me that a summer in which the foliage on trees
is unusually dense, or exceptionally bright in color, is followed by
a very cold winter. When great numbers of squirrels are seen
moving toward the south, it is regarded as a sign of an early
fall and hard winter.
Many old people say that if the hornets build their nests low
in the trees, it means that a severe winter is coming; if the
hornets' nests hang high, the following winter will be mild.
A big crop of walnuts indicates cold weather to come. A great
abundance of mast which means acorns is a sure sign of a
severe winter. If cherries or lilacs bloom in the fall, the winter
will be unusually long and severe. If woodpeckers begin at the
foot of a tree and work clear to the top, it means that cold
weather is coming very soon. When a cat sits down with its tail
toward the fire, the hillman looks for a cold spell. If the moon
appears farther north than usual in the fall, the Ozarkcr pre-
dicts an unusually cold winter. Most old-timers feel that a very
hot summer is likely to be followed by a winter of extraordinary
severity.
When snowflakes are very large, it means that the storm won't
last long; if the flakes are small, it may be only the beginning
of a heavy fall of snow. If snow lays on the ground, without
melting appreciably, it is a sign that another snowfall may be
expected soon.
Pick up a handful of snow, and try to melt it with a lighted
match. If it melts quickly, the snow on the ground will soon
disappear. But if the snow in your hand does not melt easily,
WEATHER SIGNS 27
t means that there will be snow on the ground for a considerable
irne.
Old hunters say that when a deer lies down casually in the
now, there will be another snowstorm within a few days. But
fhen deer paw out places in the snow, as if to make beds for
hemselves, it means that there will be no more snow for a week
>r two at least.
The old belief regarding Groundhog Day is very widely ac-
epted in the Ozarks. The groundhog is supposed to emerge
rom his burrow on Groundhog Day, and if the sun is shining
ie goes back to sleep, knowing that there will be six more weeks
f winter weather.
February 2 is recognized as Groundhog Day in most sections
f the United States, and is so marked on our calendars and
Imanacs. Otto Ernest Rayburn says that the Missouri Legis-
ature has established February 2 as the legal and official
rroundhog Day of Missouri. 4 But there are thousands of peo-
>le in Missouri and Arkansas who regard February 14 as
rroundhog Day, and it is February 14, not February 2, that
hey consider in deciding the proper dates for plowing and
ilanting.
The publisher of the Crane (Missouri) Chronicle comments
ditorially : "In Pike county, 111., where I was born, groundhogs
aw or failed to see their shadows on February 2nd. That date
>revails to this day as far west as the Mississippi. Down here,
he official date is February 14th." 5
Uncle Jack Short, Galena, Missouri, told me in 1944 that he
ever heard of February 2 being called Groundhog Day until
fter 1900. "February fourteenth is the real old-time Ground-
og Day," he said. Mr. Short was born up on Crane Creek, not
ar from Galena, in 1864. His father came from Tennessee in
he 1840's.
* Arcadian Magazine (February, 1932), p. 18.
c Feb. 18, 1943.
28 WEATHER SIGNS
In 1933 I was in Greene County, Missouri, where February 2
was clear, while February 14 was dark and cloudy. The "fur-
riners" prepared for six weeks of cold weather, but the old-
timers shucked their sheepskin coats and began to spade up
their garden patches. The following is clipped from the Spring-
field (Missouri) Press, Feb. 16, 1933.
"What's all this talk about February 2 being groundhog day?*'
asked a man at the courthouse Wednesday who is old enough to know
what he is talking about. "It was always February 14 until late years.
Suppose the darned hog has caught the spirit of the times and is
stepping on the gas working under high pressure and starting his
year 12 days earlier than in the good old days when men arid ground-
hogs both took time to live in a rational manner.
"My father and my grandfather, and all the generations from
Adam down to 20 years ago pinned their faith to February 14 St.
Valentine's day. That is the correct date, and it matters not what
the younger generation may say about it. There was no shadows Tues-
day and Winter is about over."
Three years later the people in Greene County were still
wrangling. Here is an editorial comment from the Springfield
(Missouri) Leader, Feb. 4, 1936:
Groundhog saw no shadow here and a large faction says it makes
no difference whether the hog saw a shadow or not on February 2,
as the correct date for such an observation is February 14. The
second- of -February faction elaim that those who stand by the four-
teenth have mixed the date up with Valentine Day. A great many
people are neutral on the subject, or pretend to be in order to avoid
making enemies.
The last sentence of the above quotation shows how seriously
the controversy is taken by some persons. Springfield is a town
with a population of perhaps 60,000 souls, and many of these,
including some newspapermen, are not native Ozarkers at all.
Most of the weekly papers in the back-country villages do not
even mention this controversy about the date. Their readers all
know that Groundhog Day falls on February 14, and there is no
need for any argument about it.
WEATHER SIGNS 29
It is said that Deacon Dobyns of the Oregon (Missouri)
Sentinel kept careful records of Groundhog Day for more than
forty years and discredited the see-your-shadow prophecy in
his section of the country, for either February 2 or February
14. But that doesn't matter in the least to the old-time hillman,
who still believes in Groundhog Day. I have encountered, in
some isolated localities, traces of an ancient notion that birds
and rabbits begin their mating on February 14, and some old
folks say that it is unlucky to eat rabbit meat after this date.
There are other ways of determining whether winter is really
over, regardless of Groundhog Day. Even though many warm
days come early in the spring, if the moon appears just a hair
farther north than it should be, many an Ozark farmer fears
another killing frost. Some people say that the moment a sign
of green shows on the bodark tree (bois d'arc, or Osagc orange)
the cold weather is definitely over, but many hillfolk are skepti-
cal even of this sign.
One often hears frogs piping very early. Mr. Kufe Scott,
attorney at Galena, Missouri, has noticed for many years that
during court week (the second week in March) the frogs holler
for the first time. In this locality it is commonly believed that
the frogs always come out too soon, and are "froze back" three
times before spring really arrives. The birds known as killdccrs
are much more reliable than frogs, but even killdeers are some-
times mistaken about the weather. One certain sign of spring,
however, is the return of the turkey buzzards; the old-timers
all agree that there is never any freezing weather after the first
buzzard is seen.
There are occasional violent tornadoes or cyclones in the
Ozark country. I have seen long lines of big trees uprooted in
the timber, and sometimes one of these storms destroys a settle-
ment with considerable loss of life. But somehow the hillfolk
as a rule are not much concerned about windstorms, and there
is little of the tornado-phobia that used to be so common in
the cyclone-cellar belt of Kansas and Oklahoma.
30 WEATHER SIGNS
I have heard farmers declare that the wind always slacks up
at milkin'-time, both morning and night. Some of them really
believe this, while others tell it to their children along with the
old story that a boy who rubs a sow's milk in his eyes can see
the wind.
Some people say that the angle at which a star falls somehow
indicates the direction of the wind which will arise next morn-
ing. Charles J. Finger, of Fayetteville, Arkansas, tells me that
his neighbors believe that the "set" of the Milky Way shows
the direction of the prevailing wind for a month in advance.
Many hillfolk think that cats are able to tell when a wind-
storm is on the way ; some even say that just before a storm a
cat always scratches itself and points with its tail in the direc-
tion from which the wind will come. When crows fly erratically,
or pitch about high in the air, the hillman expects a strong wind
within the next hour or so.
If a hog is seen looking up, when nothing is visible which
would ordinarily attract his attention, some folk conclude that
a terrific storm or tornado is imminent. Several farmers near
Green Forest, Arkansas, and Berryville, Arkansas, where wind-
storms have destroyed houses and killed many people, claim
to have seen hogs looking up at the sky not long before the big
winds came.
There are still a few diehards in the Ozarks who believe that
men can control the weather to some extent by charms and in-
cantations, but the average farmer has little confidence in such
methods. The wild rain dances of the Cbeyennes, not uncommon
across the Oklahoma border, excite only laughter among the
mountain folk. One hears occasionally of certain preachers,
particularly those of the Pentecostal or "Holy Roller" cults,
who have big meetings at which the whole congregation prays
for rain but apparently without much effect.
Other hillmen try to produce rain by burning brush along the
creeks, or hanging dead snakes belly-up on fences, or killing
frogs and leaving them in the dry road, or putting salt on
WEATHER SIGNS 81
gravel bars, or suspending live turtles above the water. Singing
late at night is said to "fetch on a shower," as explained in the
little rhyme:
Sing afore you go to bed,
You'll git up with a wet head,
but I have never known any grown-up hillfolk to take it seri-
ously.
In very dry periods a farmer may try to "charm up" a rain
by pouring a gourdful of water on the ground in the middle of
a dusty field. Children are sometimes told to do this by their
elders, but I don't think that many adults have any real con-
fidence in it.
In some localities people imagine that they can cause a rain
by submerging a cat in sulphur water they don't drown the
animal, but make sure that it is completely under water for a
moment at least. I once saw this tried at Noel, Missouri, but
without any success.
There is an old saying to the effect that "rain follers the
plow," and this is sometimes interpreted to mean that a farmer
can actually bring on a rainstorm by plowing in the dust. I
have met farmers who repeated this saying and said that they
believed it. But the only man I ever knew who actually put the
idea into practice was a religious fanatic, not a typical Ozark
hillman at all.
Mr. G. H. Pipes tells me that in 1929 an old man appeared
at Reeds Spring, Missouri, and announced that he was a pro-
fessional rain maker. The country was mighty dry just then,
and the tomato crop seemed certain to fail. Mr. Pipes says that
Jim Kerr, who owned the tomato cannery in those days, offered
fifty dollars for a good soaking rain. The old man begged a lot
of used motor oil from a filling station and carried it to the top
of a high hill near the village. That night he set the stuff afire,
and the blaze could be seen for miles around. Next day came
a good rain, and Jim Kerr paid him the fifty dollars without
any quibbling. The rain maker stayed around Reeds Spring for
32 WEATHER SIGNS
several months, and the old-timers claim that he produced sev-
eral other showers when they were sorely needed.
Mrs. May Kennedy McCord says 6 when she was a child the
rain maker knelt down facing the sunrise, bowed three times, and
repeated the 6th verse of Psalm 72: "He shall come down like
rain upon the mown grass, as showers that water the earth."
Some say that if one kills a spider it won't rain for seven
days, and in certain families the children are very careful not
to kill spiders in dry weather. It's only a sort of childish game,
though. And I doubt if many of the children really believe that
there is anything to it.
Mr. Elbert Short, of Crane, Missouri, quoted for me an old
sayin' that if a farmer doesn't provide sufficient cook wood for
his womenfolk, his crops will suffer from lack of rain. I have
heard this in several remote sections of Arkansas and Oklahoma,
but very few backwoods farmers pay any attention to it, and
the women still split most of the cook wood.
Some Ozark farmers are very careful, at corn-planting time,
to save the cobs from the seedcorn and soak them in water
this is said to insure plenty of rain to make the crop. Once the
crop is safe, these cobs are buried in the ground or thrown into
a running stream. On the other hand, I am told that the people
who live in the White River bottoms burn every seedcorn cob,
contending that this prevents floods which would otherwise
damage the corn. Will Rice of St. Joe, Arkansas, remarks that
his neighbors believe that "if after you shell the seedcorn from
the cobs, you throw the cobs in the creek, your corn will have
all the moisture it needs. But if you burn the cobs in the stove,
your corn crop will burn up in a drought." 7
Many hillfolk feel that it is best not to call a tornado or
cyclone by name. I remember a man near Pineville, Missouri,
who viewed a sudden black cloud with considerable alarm. But
6 KWTO Dial, Springfield, Mo., October, 1946, p. 3.
i Kansas City Star, May 5, 1943, p. 2.
WEATHER SIGNS 33
he was careful to avoid the word cyclone. "I'm afeared something
bad is a-cominY' he quavered.
There is an old story to the effect that when a farmer sees a
cyclone coming he should run into a field and stick his knife into
the ground, with the edge of the blade toward the approaching
cloud. The knife is supposed to "split the wind," so that his
dwelling and barn will be spared. This notion is widely known
in the Ozarks, and it is said that it is still practiced in Carroll
county, Arkansas. I know a lot of backwoods people in Carroll
county but have never found a man who would admit having
done such a thing himself. Several of them have told me, however,
that such "foolishment" is common among their neighbors.
I was once present in a backwoods settlement when the place
was struck by a high wind trees uprooted, some buildings
turned over, and so on. The natives ran wildly about, cursing
and screaming, exactly as people do elsewhere in similar situa-
tions. One bewhiskered citizen prayed a little and then sprang
into a pigpen where he somehow broke one of his legs. But if
anybody stuck knives into the ground, or worked any sort of
magic spells against the approaching storm, I found no evidence
of it.
3. Crops and
Livestock
' The changes of the moon and the signs
of the zodiac are very important in de-
termining the best dates for planting
certain crops. What the hillman calls the "dark" of the moon is
the period from the full moon to the new, the decrease or waning
of the moon ; the other half of the lunar season, from the new
moon to the full, when the moon is waxing or increasing in size, is
known as the "light" of the moon. In general, it is said that
vegetables which are desired to grow chiefly underground such
as potatoes, onions, beets, turnips, radishes, and peanuts are
best planted in the dark of the moon. Garden crops which bear
the edible part above ground, such as beans, peas, tomatoes,
and so on, are usually planted in the light of the moon.
1 Besides the moon's phases, there are also the signs of the
zodiac to be considered, and almost any hill farmer can make
out these signs in the almanac, even though he cannot read a
line of ordinary print. Merchants in the backwoods settlements
distribute large calendars in which the phases of the moon and
the signs of the zodiac are graphically and plainly represented.
If a man can "read figgcrs" and knows the date he can see at a
glance just what the situation is for any day in the year. In-
stead of using the names of the twelve constellations as the
astrologers do, the hillman usually designates the portion of
the human body with which each is associated. Some very suc-
cessful farmers believe that underground crops, such as pota-
toes, should be planted "when the sign's in the feet" that is,
when the moon is in Pisces. Jf a hillman wishes to indicate
Aquarius he says "when the sign's in the legs." In the same way
CROPS AND LIVESTOCK 35
Capricornus is connected with the knees, Sagittarius with the
thighs, Scorpio with the sex organs or "privates," Libra with
the kidneys, Virgo with the bowels, Leo with the heart, Cancer
with the breast, Gemini with the arms, Taurus with the neck,
and Aries with the head. It is interesting to note that some
Ozarkers say "the sign of the crawpappy" when they mean
Scorpio, simply because the picture of the scorpion in the
almanac looks rather like a crawfish.
Mr. C. C. Keller, farm agent in Greene County, Missouri, 1
stirred up a great controversy once by advising farmers to
plant their potatoes on March 17 every year, with no regard
to the signs of the zodiac or the changes of the moon. One of my
neighbors in McDonald county, Missouri, was so horrified at
this heresy that he decided not to send his son to the village
high school. "If education don't learn a man no better than
that," said he, "I don't want none of it in my family !"
Uncle Jack Short of Galena, Missouri, told me that some
farmers back in the 1880's used to plant potatoes on February
14. Mr. Short himself thinks that this is much too early; he
plants his own spuds on March 17, or even later sometimes
as late as March 30. I have met a few old-timers who say that
the one-hundredth day of the year is the proper day to plant
potatoes, regardless of the weather or any other considerations.
However farmers may differ about the proper date for plant-
ing, they are generally agreed that potatoes should be dug in
the light of the moon, as they will rot otherwise.
There are men in Arkansas who are always careful to plant
onions and potatoes on opposite sides of the garden, believing
that potatoes will not do well if onions are growing too close,
A little boy who asked about this was told that the odor of
onions "makes a 'tater cry its eyes out." This was only a joke,
of course, but the fact remains that these people do not plant
potatoes and onions together/.
It is very generally agreed that beans should be planted when
i Springfield (Missouri) Press, Mar. 15, 1933.
36 CROPS AND LIVESTOCK
the sign is in the arms. Plant them in Virgo, the old-timers say,
and you'll get large plants and plenty of bloom, but mighty few
beans and poor quality at that. An old woman fingering some
very inferior beans at a crossroads store remarked : "They must
have been planted when the maid held the posies" in Virgo,
that is. Bunch beans should be started on Good Friday regard-
less, according to some very successful bean growers. All beans
should be planted in the morning rather than in the afternoon,
and there is a widely accepted theory that beans planted in
May never amount to much. Some old hillmen contend that one
should never plant beans until after the first whippoorw ill's
cry is heard, no matter what the weather conditions are, or
what the signs indicate. The farmer who burns the hulls of his
seed beans or peas will get no crop anyhow, no matter what
happens.
Cucumbers are best planted in Gemini, other things being
equal, but some old-timers insist that cucumber seeds must be
planted on May 1 before sunup this protects the vines against
insects. Many hillmen believe that the size of a cucumber de-
pends upon the virility of the man who plants the seed cu-
cumbers planted by a woman or an old man never amount to
much. A feeble-minded person is particularly successful in
growing certain crops, and there is an old saying that "it takes
a damn fool to raise gourds." Peppers thrive best if the indi-
vidual who plants them is angry at the time, and if a lunatic
can be induced to do the planting, so much the better. It is
considered very bad luck to plant sage in one's own garden the
backwoods housewife always calls in a stranger to do this job
if possible.
The old-timers around Marionville, Missouri, tell me that
watermelon seeds should be planted on May 10, regardless.
Many farmers in Arkansas, however, plant watermelons on
May 1, before sunrise, just like cucumbers. Some hillmen soak
watermelon seeds in sweet milk overnight before planting them,
CROPS AND LIVESTOCK 37
and one fellow near Clinton, Arkansas, told me that this trick
is supposed to make the melons sweeter.
Cabbage, head lettuce, or any vegetable that heads, is sup-
posed to be planted in Aries. There is a widespread notion,
however, that all lettuce is best planted on Saint Valentine's
day February 14, which the old-timers still call Groundhog
Day. Otto Ernest Rayburn tells me that once, when Valentine's
Day fell on Sunday, the people at Kingston, Arkansas, got up
before daylight to plant their lettuce, so as not to be seen violat-
ing the Sabbath. Peas are always planted on February 14
many gardeners cling to this idea after they have discarded most
of the other superstitions.
People who used to raise hemp for cordage the same weed
that is called marijuana by the moderns say that this stuff
is best planted on Good Friday. Flax must be planted on Good
Friday no matter what the weather conditions, according to
the old settlers, but not much flax is grown in the Ozarks now-
adays.
Farmers who differ widely about the proper signs and dates
for other crops are pretty well agreed that turnips should be
planted on July 25, regardless of signs, weather, or the phases
of the moon. Uncle Jack Short, of Galena, Missouri, quoted a
little rhyme:
Sow your turnips the 25th of July,
You'll make a crop, wet or dry,
and he tells me that this has been known and followed in his
family for more than a hundred years.
Oats which are to be thrashed must be sowed in the light
of the moon, to insure good full heads. But many hillmen believe
that oats intended for fodder should be planted in the "olden
moon" the dark of the moon, that is. Some people near For-
syth, Missouri, contend that all wheat and oats are best sowed
in the dark of the moon if planted in the light of the moon
the stalks will be too tall and spindlin', and likely to fall down.
38 CROPS AND LIVESTOCK
One of the men who told me about this remarked also that a man
who is raising oats should not have his hair cut during the
growing season, but the younger members of the family smiled
at this "old fogy notion."
The best time to plant corn is when the oak leaves or the
hickory buds, according to some hillmen are as big as squir-
rels' ears. Some think that it is better to plant corn immediately
after the first dove coos in the spring, or w r hen the first martins
appear, usually in late March or early April. There is an old
saying that one should never plant corn the first two days of
May, no matter what the circumstances or the weather. Corn
never amounts to much if it is planted on one of the "blind days"
the day before the new moon, the day of the new moon, or the
day following the new moon. If a man laughs loudly while plant-
ing corn, it is said that the grains on the cob will be irregular
and too far apart. Many farmers plant corn in the dark of the
moon. Roy Cole, of Taney county, Missouri, says that the
light of the moon grows tall stalks and lots of top fodder, but
mighty few ears of corn. Many hillfolk believe that corn is best
planted in Scorpio, other things being equal.
Some hillmen always plant sugar cane on a certain day in
July, and it is said that this is figured from the number of snows
in the preceding February, but I have never been able to learn
just how it works. Mrs. Pearl DeHaven, of Springfield, Mis-
souri, says that "when the katydids first begin to sing it is
time to plant cane, if you want your stock to eat it." There
are substantial farmers in Arkansas who believe that a man
with a child less than one year old should never plant cane or
"soggrums" at all, though what the penalty is for violating
this rule I do not know.
; Fruit trees are set out in one of the "fruitful" signs, such as
Scorpio, and in the dark of the moon, although any country
boy will tell you that trees must be pruned in the light of the
moon. Transplanted trees should be set in their old positions
relative to the points of the compass the north side of the
CROPS AND LIVESTOCK 39
tree must still face the north. Some farmers contend that any
sort of tree may be transplanted at any time of the year (in the
dark of the moon, of course) if one is careful to water it every
day exactly at noon, and keep this up until the first rain falls.
In planting peach trees, it is always well to bury old shoes
or boots near the roots. Not far from Little Rock, Arkansas,
I have known farmers to drive into town and search the refuse
piles for old shoes to be buried in peach orchards. The older
and more decayed the leather, the better it works as fertilizer.
Many hill people drive nails into peach trees, but just what
effect this is supposed to produce I do not know. Some say that
nails are driven into barren trees in order to make them bear
fruit, or to keep the peaches from falling off before they are
ripe, but others are noncommittal or evasive. "Them's family
matters," one old man growled when I asked why a certain peach
tree was so thickly studded with big old-fashioned nails.
I have met intelligent and educated farmers in Arkansas who
believe that if the wind is in the south on February 14, the
peach crop will fail. Some farmers prefer to express this notion
in another way, saying that "if the wind aint in the south on
Groundhog Day, we'll get peaches no matter how cold it is."
There is an old saying in southern Missouri that a big yield
of peaches means that certain other crops especially corn,
wheat, and oats will be poor and scanty ; this notion is stoutly
defended by farmers who pay little attention to other super-
stitions. Akin to this is the theory that a season which is good
for tomatoes is somehow bad for walnuts ; a man who has run
a "tomater factory" (a cannery, that is) for many years tells
me that when the tomato crop is exceptionally good there aren't
any walnuts at all.
Up around Marshfield, Missouri, many farmers say that if it
rains on May 23, there'll be no blackberries that summer. Near
Rogers, Arkansas, I met a family of berrypickers who believe
that even a few drops of rain on June 2 will ruin the prospect
for berries, while other hillfolk claim that June 13 is '*black-
40 CROPS AND LIVESTOCK
berry day" if it rains or even thunders on June 13, the
blackberries will not be worth picking. Many people feel that
rain on June 1 is bad for the grape crop, both wild and culti-
vated. Otto Ernest Rayburn, of Eureka Springs, Arkansas, told
me of the belief that if it rains on June 20, the grapes will fall
right off the vines.
Some people insist that mushrooms must be gathered when
the moon is full gather 'em at any other time and they will
be unpalatable, or perhaps even poisonous. It is said that any
mushroom which grows in an orchard where apple trees are
blooming is edible.
The clearing of underbrush and the killing of sprouts is a seri-
ous matter to the Ozark farmer. There is a widespread belief
that on some certain day one can kill large trees merely by
touching the trunk with the blade of an ax, but there is so much
difference of opinion about the proper date that little practical
use is made of this theory. Nevertheless, nearly all of the old-
timers are convinced that there is something in the idea.
Some hillfolk believe that if sprouts are cut on the ninth or
tenth of May, they will never grow again. One of my neighbors
near Pineville, Missouri, insisted on clearing his garden patch on
these two days, although his wife and child lay dying only a few
yards away.
Roy Cole, of Taney county, Missouri, says that "if you stick
an ax in a saplin' in the spring, when the sign's in the heart, the
leaves will wither in a few hours, and the tree will be dead in
three or four months." Uncle Jack Short, of Galena, Missouri,
would not commit himself about the sign, but told me that he
had killed big oaks in May, when the oak leaves had not quite
reached their full size, by making two or three deep cuts. The
trees were positively not "ringed" or "girdled," he said, as in
an ordinary deadening, but the leaves shriveled up in about six
hours.
A woodsman near Walnut Shade, Missouri, told me that June
2 was "tree-killin* day" in his neighborhood, and that one man
CROPS AND LIVESTOCK 41
cutting brush on this day can accomplish more than ten men
working at any other season.
In general, I think that most Ozarkers believe it is best to cut
weeds and grub sprouts and deaden timber in August some
say between August 1 and August 20. There is a pretty general
opinion that the dark of the moon is better than the light of the
moon for this work. I have met men who prefer to grub sprouts
in Virgo, or Gemini, but the great majority speak for Leo
"when the sign's in the heart."
By the same token* experts in these matters say that one
should never cut hay when the sign is in the heart : if you do,
it'll kill the roots, and you'll have no hay next year. "Lots of
these here book farmers, when their clover or alfalfa dies, think
it was froze out," one old man told me. "But the facts o' the
matter is, the damn' fools cut it when the sign's in the heart, and
that's what killed it."
A man who owns land near Carl Junction, Missouri, tells me
that some farmers in his neighborhood cut sprouts only on the
dates marked "Ember Days" in the almanac ; they hire all the
men they can get on these days and "sprout" large areas, claim-
ing that this is more economical than the ordinary way of
sprouting fields.
Ask almost any Ozark farmer, and he will tell you that if
you fell a tree in the dark of the moon the log will show a definite
tendency to sink into the ground, while a log cut in the light of
the moon will not sink. Shingles or "shakes" rived out in the
dark of the moon lie flat, but if made or put on during the
moon's increase they warp and turn up. In recent years I have
met several men who say this is all wrong, that shingles must
be made and roofs laid in the light of the moon. All agree, how-
ever, that "board trees" from which shingles are made must be
cut in the dark of the moon, otherwise they will rot. Rail fences
are subject to the same principle; if the rails are split and
laid in the light of the moon they are sure to curl and twist, and
decay much more rapidly than if they are cut when the moon is
42 CROPS AND LIVESTOCK
dark. Even seasoned planks, if laid on the ground in the light
of the moon, invariably warp or cup, while in the dark of the
moon there is no such difficulty. Hog raisers sometimes build
their fences during the moon's last quarter ; they believe that
this causes the bottom rail to sink into the ground, so that hogs
cannot root under the fence.
Many Ozark farmers say that it is very bad luck to drive
fence posts in the light of the moon, but just why this is so I
have not been able to learn. Mrs. C. P. Mahnkey, Mincy, Mis-
souri, tells me that a posthole dug in the dark of the moon can
be filled up level full with the dirt that was taken out of it ;
when a posthole is dug in the light of the moon, however, there
is always more dirt than can possibly be replaced. In Baxter
county, Arkansas, I was told that in making posts one should
sharpen the end that was nearest the ground in the living tree ;
it's bad luck to set a post upside down.
The old-timers long ago discovered, or at least believed, that
chickens which roost in cedar trees are healthy and free from
mites and other parasites, so that many farmers periodically cut
cedar boughs and put them in their hencoops. A few years ago,
when bananas became common in the village stores, people some-
how got the notion that a banana stalk hung up in a 'chicken
house would rid the whole place of mites and chicken lice, and
these stalks are still seen in outbuildings occasionally.
Some chicken raisers tell me that it is a mistake to keep
chickens near a potato patch, or near a place where potatoes
are stored. The smell of potatoes, it is said, makes hens quit
laying and want to brood. I have often seen hens with corn
shucks fastened to their tails this is supposed to discourage
a settin' hen in a few days.
It is generally thought best to set eggs in the light of the
moon. Never set a hen or an incubator when the wind is blowing
from the south, or mighty few of the eggs will hatch. Eggs
carried in a woman's bonnet, it is said, invariably make pullets.
Mrs. Pearl DeHaven, of Springfield, Missouri, repeats the story
CROPS AND LIVESTOCK 43
that if eggs are carried in a man's hat, they all hatch roosters.
Unusually long eggs, or eggs with shells noticeably rough at one
end, are also regarded as "rooster eggs." It is said that eggs
set on Sunday produce roosters, but one hears also that eggs
placed under a hen in the forenoon, no matter what the day,
always hatch a majority of pullets. Some hillfolk believe that
chicks hatched in May, regardless of how favorable the other
conditions may be, will never mature properly.
There are several magic tricks to protect domestic fowl from
birds of prey. Mrs. Lillian Short, of Galena, Missouri, tells me
that one of her neighbors used to take a smooth stone from a
runnin' branch, just about big enough to fit the palm of the
hand, and keep it in the oven of the cookstove this was sup-
posed to prevent hawks from killing the chickens. Most hillfolk
of my acquaintance use a horseshoe instead of the stone, and
some think that a muleshoe is even better. It is frequently
fastened in the firebox of the stove rather than in the oven. In
the old days the muleshoe was hung up in the fireplace, or even
set into the mortar at the back of the chimney.
Some chicken grannies pull one feather out of each chicken in
their flock and bury these feathers deep in the dirt under the
henhouse or henroost. As long as the feathers remain there, it is
believed that those particular chickens cannot be carried off by
hawks or varmints, or stolen by human chicken thieves.
I once saw a large flock of chickens in the Arkansas back-
woods, and about half of them had dirty rags fastened round
their necks, like collars. "There's coal oil on them rags," an old
woman remarked, "an' it cures the roup."
Mrs. C. P. Mahnkey, Mincy, Missouri, says that a handful
of "polecat brush," put into the chickens' drinking water, will
stop an epidemic of roup or chicken cholera quicker than any
other treatment. Polecat brush is a shrub with tiny yellow flowers
I have not been able to identify this plant. Some people call
it aromatic sumac.
It is very commonly believed that people who raise chickens
44 CROPS AND LIVESTOCK
should never give away a chick always take some sort of pay-
ment, even if it is only a matter of form. A neighbor told me
that when she wanted to give some chicks to her mother-in-law,
the old lady insisted on "paying" her with a handful of wild
strawberries, carefully counting out one berry for each chick.
The old saying is that if you give away a chick, your luck goes
with it. I remember a woman who had two black chicks that the
hen wouldn't own, so she gave them to a little girl from the city.
The old-timers predicted ruin for the whole family, and the pre-
diction came true with a vengeance. Before the year was out,
my neighbor's husband was sent to the penitentiary, and her
only daughter "went wrong."
Down around Rogers and Bentonville, Arkansas, there are
many people who believe that healthy geese lay the first eggs
of the season on March 17 if the eggs appear very much later,
it means that the geese will have a bad year. Most backwoods
women are taught that live geese must be picked in the new moon,
and never at any other time ; some say that this makes the birds
produce a fine new crop of feathers, others think that it some-
how affects the quality of the feathers already plucked.
There are several peculiar taboos against mentioning aloud
the exact number of chickens in a flock, or cattle in a herd,
particularly if it happens to be an even number one divisible
by two. A real old-timer never counts aloud the flowers or fruit
on a tree, or the number of peas in a pod, or even the number
of ears on a stalk of corn, because of an ancient notion that
this counting may injure the crop.
A hill farmer, when asked how many bee-gums he has, never
mentions the exact number if he did so, he would get no honey
that season. Some beekeepers believe that every hive must be
moved an inch or so on February 22, in order to prevent an
infectious disease called foul brood. Moths which destroy the
honeycomb are driven away by scattering splinters from a
"lightnin'-struck" tree over the hives, and I am told that the
same treatment will rid a cabin of fleas and bedbugs which
CROPS AND LIVESTOCK 45
latter pest the Ozarker calls "cheenches." When a death occurs
in the family, the hillfolk attach a bit of black cloth to each
hive; if this is not done, the bees are likely to leave the place
and carry their stored honey away to bee trees in the woods.
Honey is best removed from the hive in accordance with the state
of the moon and the signs of the zodiac, but a man who can hold
his breath is never stung by honeybees, anyhow. In the case of
yellow jackets one protects himself by chanting:
Jasper whisper jacket!
You caint no more sting me
Than the Devil can count sixpence !
There are many cattlemen in the Ozarks who will not feed
an even number of cattle. I knew one man who bought forty-one
steers, expecting to feed them through the winter and sell them
in the spring. When he discovered that one was missing he was
much disturbed and immediately tried to buy another animal
to replace it. Failing in this, he sold one at a very low price,
preferring to winter thirty-nine steers rather than forty. When
I asked what would be the penalty for violating this rule against
even numbers, he said that the cattle would not be "thrifty, 5 *
by which he meant that they would not fatten properly. The
same man told me that it was bad luck to pull a pig's tail, as
this may cause the animal to become "unthrifty."
Mr. Elaine Short, of Carl Junction, Missouri, tells me that
his neighbors always dehorn cattle in Aquarius, believing that
this prevents hemorrhage and infection. My friends in all sec-
tions of the Ozarks know better than to castrate pigs without
considering the signs of the zodiac, for animals cut when the
sign is in the heart are almost sure to become infected and die.
The best time for this operation is "when the sign's in the legs."
Many hillfolk, in both Missouri and Arkansas, repeat the
saying that "a man with lots of hair on his legs is always a good
hog raiser," but whether this is meant literally I do not know.
Perhaps akin to the above is a hillbilly crack reported by Nancy
Clemens, of Springfield, Missouri, to the effect that "pigs born
46 CROPS AND LIVESTOCK
in January always have black teeth.** Miss Clemens isn't sure
just what this means, and neither am I.
Some of the old folks are very careful to see that hogs, at
least hogs which they intend for their own use, do not have
access to garlic. Several country women have told me that if a
hog eats one little sprig of garlic and is butchered within a
week, all the meat is so impregnated with garlic that "it aint
fitten to be et." To feed hogs on soft, frostbitten corn is an-
other sure way to ruin the pork ; some farmers believe that this
spoiled corn spreads the cholery, but the best hogmen say
there's nothing to it.
The hillfolk believe that sweet milk is not very good for
grown-up human beings to drink, and that it is frequently fatal
to hogs. Very few of the real old-timers can be induced to give
sweet milk to pigs they prefer to wait until the stuff has "clab-
bered up." Many backwoods fox hunters think that sweet milk
is poisonous to dogs, too, and are horrified to see tourists feed
valuable hunting dogs with messes containing sweet milk.
In many parts of the Ozark country I have heard stories of
"mule-footed" hogs a breed of swine with solid hooves. It was
my impression at first that the mule-footed hog must be a
mythical creature, comparable to the willipus-wallipus or the
jimplicute, but Uncle Jack Short of Galena, Missouri, tells me
that he once saw several mule-footed hogs exhibited at a carnival
or street fair in Stone county, Missouri. The Christian County
Republican, a weekly published at Ozark, Missouri, carried the
following advertisement :
INFORMATION WANTED: Concerning what used to be known in this
locality as "mule-footed" hogs. Anyone still having this strain
or any information pertaining is asked to communicate with me.
Floyd C. Goddard, Box 234, Olds, Alberta, Canada. 2
I have always intended to write Mr. Goddard and try to find
out just what he learned about this subject, but never got around
to it, somehow.
2 Dec. 30 1943, p. 8.
CROPS AND LIVESTOCK 47
Some people believe that to steal a very young pig will bring
them luck. I knew a man who caught a boy in the act of stealing
one of his little pigs. He let the boy get away with it and made
no complaint which was not in character at all. I kept pester-
ing the old man about it, and finally he said that the boy "didn't
steal it just for the pig"
The best time for butchering hogs is a very important matter
in the Ozarks, because apart from wild game pork is the hill-
man's only meat. Few Ozarkers will eat mutton, and they don't
care much for beef even when they can get it. The real old-
timers butcher in the light of the moon, believing that pork
killed in the dark of the moon is tough, has an inferior flavor,
and does not keep well. Besides, most women claim that pork
butchered in the decrease of the moon will "all go to grease" and
curl up in the skillet when it is cooked.
Many farmers keep a few sheep for the wool, and goats are
valued because they eat underbrush and thus help to clear the
land. The old-timers never shear sheep or wash wool in the de-
crease of the moon, believing that the wool will shrink if handled
at this time. Some Ozarkers who have no interest in breeding
goats nevertheless buy or borrow a male goat occasionally and
turn it in with sheep, cattle, or even horses. The idea is that a
goat in the same pasture keeps other animals healthy, and is
especially good for horses and cattle with diseases of the respir-
atory tract.
Barn swallows are supposed to bring good luck to cattlemen,
and it is said that a barn in which swallows are nesting will
never be struck by lightning. To shoot a barn swallow is always
unlucky, and sometimes it makes the cows give bloody milk. It
is generally believed that eating persimmons makes cows go dry ;
there may be some truth in this, and all cows seem to eat per-
simmons whenever they can get at them. Eating large quantities
of acorns or turnips is also supposed to make cows go dry. "If a
cow loses her cud, give her a dishrag to chaw" is an old sayin'
in the Ozarks, but I am not sure just what is meant by it.
48 CROPS AND LIVESTOCK
There is a very widely known superstition that to kill a toad
will make one's cows give bloody milk. Most people think that
nothing can be done about this, once the toad is dead, but Otto
Ernest Rayburn found hillfolk in Arkansas who claim to be able
to repair the damage, particularly if the toad was killed acci-
dentally. 3 "Get seven pebbles," says Rayburn, "and throw them
over your left shoulder into an open well at sundown. The milk
will be all right after that."
Many farmers say that it is a good idea to bury a bit of a
cow's afterbirth under a pawpaw tree, as this will cause her to
bring forth female calves thereafter. It is best to begin weaning
calves on the third day before a full moon this makes 'em
grow into big healthy cattle. Most Ozarkers wean calves when
the moon is in Aquarius, without considering any other factors.
When a calf is sold, some hillfolk always drag it out of the pen
tailfirst, so that the cow will not miss it so much ; I saw a man
doing this once, and he said that it was all foolishness, but he
always pulled 'em out by the tail to please his children.
Even today, in some parts of the Ozark country, cattle are
not fenced up in pastures but merely marked or branded and
allowed to roam the hills at will, so that the matter of finding
one's cows is often difficult. However, a boy has only to consult
a harvestman, or daddy longlegs, and cry out :
Longlegs, longlegs,
Tell me where the cows are
whereupon the creature will immediately crawl in the direction
of the strayed animals. If a daddy longlegs is not available, the
farmer may spit in his hand and strike the spittle smartly with
a finger ; the fluid is supposed to fly toward the lost cattle.
If the white of a horse's eye shows all around the iris it means
that the animal is a killer many hillfolk believe that human
beings whose eyes protrude are dangerous, too. Horses with
certain white markings are looked upon with disfavor, accord-
ing to an old rhyme:
a Ozark Gauntry, p. 271.
CROPS AND LIVESTOCK 49
Four white feet an' a white nose,
Take off his hide an* throw him to the crows.
A horse foaled in May, it is said, always has a tendency to lie
down in a running stream and often does so with a rider on his
back. No matter when a colt is born, the old folks insist that
it should be weaned when the sign's in the legs. "Try to wean a
colt when the sign's in the belly," an old woman told me, "an 5
see what happens ! He'll raise hell sure, an' maybe git sick be-
sides."
Roy Cole, who lives on Bear Creek in Taney county, Mis-
souri, says that it is easy to tell whether a colt will make a big
horse or a small one. When a colt is first able to stand, measure
the distance from the ground to the point of its shoulder this
is exactly one-half of the height the horse will attain at matu-
rity. Some horsemen measure from the hairline of the colt's
front hoof to the center of the knee joint this distance is one-
fourth of the height the horse will be when full grown. In other
words, if the colt's hoof-to-knee measurement is sixteen inches,
the grown horse will be sixteen hands high a hand is four
inches.
A great many hill people claim that when a mare's first colt
is a mule, her second, although sired by a stallion, is sure to
have a stripe down its back. Professional horse breeders ridicule
this notion, but a lot of old-time hillmen still believe that there
is something in it.
Akin to the superstition regarding prenatal influence and the
"marking" of babies is the idea that a horse breeder can color
a colt to suit his taste simply by hanging a cloth of the desired
color before the mare's eyes when she is bred.
The fact that a horse rolls on the ground has no particular
significance, but near Harrison, Arkansas, they say that if a
horse rolls over and back, it means that he's worth a lot of
money.
It is very bad luck to change a horse's name ; to sell a man a
horse and tell him its name incorrectly is regarded as a dirty
50 CROPS AND LIVESTOCK
trick, since it means that he will never get any satisfactory
service out of the animal. There is an old saying that one should
"always name a good dog after a bad man," but a long list of
dog names which I once collected in the Ozarks shows no evi-
dence that the hillman really puts it into practice.
There are many outlandish remedies and treatments for the
ailments of domestic animals. Ordinary soft soap made with
wood ashes is regarded as a sort of universal tonic for hogs, so
the hillman just mixes a little soap with the hog feed occasion-
ally. "Soap will cure a hog no matter what ails him, if you git
it to him in time," said one of my neighbors. Equal parts of soft
soap and lard are administered to cattle as a cure for the mur-
rain. Many old-timers mix soot from the chimney with the salt
they give their cattle, but I have been unable to learn the rea-
son for this.
^ To cure holler horn in cattle, some hillmen take a gimlet and
bore a hole in the horn just above the hairline, leave the hole
open for several days, and then plug it with a small cork. Others
fill the cavity with salt, which seems to work as well as the stop-
per/
If a cow has the disease known as holler tail, you must split
the tail open and apply a mixture of salt and vinegar, then
bind it up with woolen yarn. Mrs. Pearl DeHaven, of Spring-
field, Missouri, thinks that salt and pepper is a better com-
bination than salt and vinegar. "Of course," she writes, "mod-
ern veterinaries tell us there is no such thing as holler tail, but
these young squirts have a lot to learn." Any disease which
involves paralysis of the hindquarters seems to be called holler
tail.
A neighbor of mine, when several of his horses were sick, spent
an entire day rounding up every horse and mule on the place.
With a sharp knife he split the end of each animal's tail just
a little, and let it bleed a few drops. I tried to find out what
was wrong with the horses, but the man had no idea. He said
that splittin' their tails always cured them, no matter what
the trouble was.
CROPS AND LIVESTOCK 51
When a horse has colic, these amateur vets jusi blow a little
salt into each of its nostrils. If an animal's legs are cut by barbed
wire, the hillman burns a bit of wool and blows the smoke over
the wounds by way of antisepsis ; sometimes he twists a cord
tightly about the creature's tail, believing that this stops the
injured legs from bleeding.
^Farmers sometimes mix gunpowder with a watchdog's food,
believing that it renders the animal more vicious?^ have never
known a hillman to give gunpowder to a foxhound or a tree
dog. I did see a boy in Galena, Missouri, dosing an Irish setter
with gunpowder somebody had told him it was a sure cure for
distemper. Many hillfolk treat distemper by rubbing kerosene
on the back of the animal's neck. Others claim to cure distemper
by burning chicken feathers in a paper sack and holding the
sack over the dog's head so he is forced to inhale the fumes. A
dog's nose, the hillman thinks, should be black, and a red-nosed
dog is always regarded with suspicion. Many old-timers imagine
that a dog whose nose isn't black must be sick, and they keep
their own dogs away from such an animal, fearing infection.
Here is a "recept" from an old manuscript book belonging
to Miss Miriam Lynch, Notch, Missouri.
CURE FOR A DOG WITH A SORE MOUTH
apple sider vinegar % pint
blue stone teaspoon l / 2 full
allom teaspoon % full
borax teaspoon % full
coppers teaspoon % full
then Take yellow rute and make
a strong Tea and Disolve x
the rest in it. ^
The "blue stone" mentioned is copper sulphate ; "allom" is
alum ; "coppers" is ferrous sulphate, which is often called cop-
peras; "yellow rute" is probably golden-seal (Hydrastis), also
known as yellow puccoon.
To cure a dog of fits, just cut up some of your own hair into
52 CROPS AND LIVESTOCK
pieces about one-eighth of an inch long, mix these pieces with
lard, and make the dog swallow a spoonful once a week.
The best way to keep a dog at home, according to some of
the old-timers, is to bury a little of its hair under the hearth
or the doorstep. I once knew a hunter in southwest Missouri
who had ten or twelve foxhounds. He was a man who moved
frequently from one shack to another, as he owned no property
and was unable to pay any rent. His wife told me that every
time they moved he cut a little hair off each dog's tail and buried
it carefully somewhere about the new cabin. This woman ad-
mitted that the hounds stayed at home better than most, but
she attributed it to the vast quantities of "dog cornbread" which
her husband required her to bake for them, rather than to the
hair which he buried under each shanty. "Them dogs' hair is
planted under ever' old shack for miles around," she said, "but I
take notice they allus come home where the bread is at !"
Some hillfolk say that to keep a dog at home one has only
to cut a green stick exactly the length of the animal's tail and
bury it under the doorstep. Another method is to cut off the
tip of his tail and nail it on a gate ; I have twice seen this tried,
but without any good result so far as I could perceive.
If a night dog will not bark "treed," some old hunters pro-
fess to cure him of this fault by smashing green gourds on the
tree above his head. Otto Ernest Rayburn mentions this, 4 and
I have heard of it in many different places. But experienced
dogmen tell me that it is "just an old hillbilly joke" and was
never meant to be taken seriously.
* Ozark Country, p. 157.
4. Household Superstitions
The signs and omens listed in this chap-
ter are mostly concerned with matters
of no great import, but they are seri-
ously considered none the less, especially by women and children.
The arrival of a visitor, for example, is an important event in a
backwoods cabin, and there are numerous signs and portents of
his coming.
(When a woman drops a dishrag she knows at once that some
dirty individual is coming toward the cabin ; if the cloth falls
in a compact wad the visitor will be a woman, if it spreads out
upon the floor a man is to be expected. It is bad luck to drop a
dishrag anyhow, and many women take the cuss off by throwing
a pinch of salt over the left shoulder immediately. To drop the
towel used in drying dishes means that a stranger will arrive
very soon, and if the towel is dropped twice it means that the
newcomer will be hungry, and a meal must be prepared. The
accidental dropping of cutlery also signifies a guest a fork
means a man, a case knife a woman. If you help yourself to
something at table, when you already have some of the same
stuff on your plate, it means that somebody is coming who is
hungry for that particular article of food. )
If the coffeepot rattles back and forth on the stove, or a
rocking chair moves along the floor as the woman rocks in it,
she expects company before night and makes her household
preparations accordingly. If she accidentally drops a bit of
food on the floor, she knows that the visitor will be hungry.
Children sometimes try to "fetch company" by running in one
door and out another, or jumping out the window if the cabin
54 HOUSEHOLD SUPERSTITIONS
has only one door, which is frequently the case. If coffee grounds
cling to the sides of the cup, high up, it is a sign that com-
pany is coming with good news.
When two roosters fight in the yard, it is said that two young
men will soon arrive ; if two hens fight, female visitors are ex-
pected. If a dog rolls on the ground before the door, the chil-
dren watch him closely, knowing that when he gets up his nose
will point in the direction from which a stranger is approaching.
If the housewife's nose itches, it means that some unexpected
company is on the way. An itching on the right side of the nose
indicates a man, an itching on the left side means a woman.
Some hillfolk say that such a visitor will be poor or needy, ac-
cording to the old rhyme:
If your nose itches, if your nose itches,
Somebody coming with a hole in his britches.
If the woman's right hand itches, it means that she will soon
shake hands with an unexpected guest. When the joint of either
thumb itches, she expects an unwelcome visitor within an hour
or two.
A pretty girl who lives appropriately enough in a town called
Blue Eye, Missouri, told me that "if your right eye itches you'll
be lucky, but if your left eye itches it means a disappointment."
Most Ozarkers don't see it this way, however they believe that
an itching of the right eye signifies bad luck, but when the left
eye itches it means that good news is a-comin'. "Never in all
my life," an old lady told me, "did my right eye itch real bad,
without I got into some kind of trouble before the day was
out!" Some people think that if your right ear burns, a man
is talking about you, while if your left ear burns, a woman is
taking your name in vain. Others say that an itching of the
right ear means that someone is speaking well of you, but a
tickling of the left ear means that someone is talking unfavor-
ably about you. If your left hand suddenly begins to itch, the
old folks say, you will shortly receive an unexpected present.
HOUSEHOLD SUPERSTITIONS 55
When a woman sneezes before breakfast, it means that com-
pany will arrive before noon. If she sneezes during breakfast,
it is a sign that two or more people will leave the house before
sundown. If she sneezes with food in her mouth, it means that
she will hear of a death before twenty-four hours have passed.
If she sneezes while telling a story, it is a true story even
though she ma} 7 believe that it is a lie. Some people say that the
girl who sneezes on Monday is sure to kiss a stranger before
the week is out.
Mrs. Coral Almy Wilson, of Zinc, Arkansas, quotes the fol-
lowing sneezing-rhyme :
[ Sneeze on Monday, sneeze for danger,
Sneeze on Tuesday, kiss a stranger,
Sneeze on Wednesday, sneeze for a letter,
Sneeze on Thursday, sneeze for better,
Sneeze on Friday, sneeze for sorrow,
Sneeze on Saturday, a friend you seek, ^
, Sneeze on Sunday, the Devil will be with you all week, y ,
Here is a different version from Reynolds county, Missouri.
Sneeze on Monday, sneeze for fun,
Sneeze on Tuesday, see someone,
Sneeze on Wednesday, get a letter,
Sneeze on Thursday, something better,
Sneeze on Friday, sneeze for sorrow,
Sneeze on Saturday, see your beau tomorrow,
Sneeze on Sunday, the Devil will control you all week.
Mrs. Mabel E. Mueller, of Rolla, Missouri, tells me that the
old-timers were careful never to let the supply of salt get too
low they believed that to run completely out of salt meant a
whole year's poverty and privation for the family. Above all
one should make sure that the salt shaker is full on New Year's
Day, since this insures prosperity for the coming year.
When I first came to the Ozarks I heard several vulgar wise-
cracks about candle salt as somehow connected with the sex life
of elderly persons ; when I asked what candle salt was, they told
56 HOUSEHOLD SUPERSTITIONS
me that the old folks used to put salt on tallow candles in the
belief that it made them last longer.
At table it is bad form to take a salt shaker from another
person's hand, since this may bring evil fortune to both parties ;
the correct thing is to wait until your neighbor sets the salt
shaker down on the table and withdraws his hand, then you are
free to pick it up.
If one spills salt at the table it is said that there will be a
violent family quarrel, ending only when someone pours water
on the salt that has been spilled. Some folks try to "take the
cuss off" by throwing a pinch of salt into the fire, or over the
left shoulder, but most of the old-timers regard this as childish
the only thing that really helps is to pour water on the
spilled salt.
It is bad luck to lend salt, often causing some sort of a "frac-
tion" between the lender and the borrower. The mountain house-
wife seldom borrows salt if she can possibly avoid doing so, and
if she does borrow the stuff, is careful never to pay it back.
When a woman borrows a cupful of salt she replaces it with
an equal amount of sugar, or molasses, or some other household
staple never salt.
Many people think it is a bad omen to spill pepper, and that
the person who does so will have a serious quarrel with one of
his best friends.
When a woman burns light bread, so that the crust is black,
it is a sign that she will fly into a rage before the day is over.
The person who eats this blackened bread will have good luck,
however, and among other blessings will never be troubled by
intestinal worms.
Some people say that when a woman burns pancakes or bis-
cuits it means that her old man is angry. There are many jokes
and wisecracks about this notion. I once boarded at the home
of a widder woman, and when she burnt the biscuits one morn-
ing another lodger cackled: "Well, I don't know which one is
the maddest, Randolph or old man Miller !" The widder woman
HOUSEHOLD SUPERSTITIONS 57
scowled at this, which she regarded as a very coarse and vulgar
remark, and an outrageous falsehood besides, since neither Mr.
Miller nor myself had been overintimate with our hostess.
Among the real old-timers, when one gives a neighbor some-
thing to eat or drink, the housewife returns the vessel unwashed,
since to send it home clean is a sign of an early quarrel with
the donor. I have known women in the hill country deliberately
to smear a pot or kettle before returning it, in case the vessel
had been washed by mistake.
It is very bad luck to give away yeast. A careful housewife
doesn't like to lend yeast, either. If one must get yeast from
a neighbor, it is best to buy it. Women who would be insulted
by an offer to pay for any other article of food are glad to ac-
cept a penny or a nickel for yeast.
If two persons use the same towel at the same time there is
sure to be a quarrel, or some sort of difficulty :
Wash an* dry together,
Weep an' cry together.
In case two persons should unthinkingly start to dry their hands
on the same towel, they hasten to twist the cloth between them
this is supposed to take the cuss off'n it, in a measure at least.
When two friends are talking together, and a third person
suddenly comes between them, they instantly turn away from
the intruder for a moment, so as to prevent a quarrel not a
quarrel with the third party, but between themselves. May
Stafford Hilburn refers to something of this sort when she says
cryptically that "girls turned their backs to each other to ward
off an untoward event if a third party stepped between them
during a conversation." 1
If two friends are walking side by side, and "unthoughtedly"
allow a tree to come between them, it means that they will have
a serious quarrel soon. One way to break this spell is for both
parties to cry instantly and in concert "Bread-and-Butter !"
i Missouri Magazine (October, 1933), p. 14.
58 HOUSEHOLD SUPERSTITIONS
In Galena, Missouri, some children insist that one of the per-
sons involved should say "Salt-and-Pepper" instead. Another
way is for them to touch hands and hook their little fingers to-
gether while they chant a certain verse it is very bad luck
to repeat the verse at any other time, so I am unable to obtain
the words of it.
No hillman would think of giving a steel blade to a friend
such a gift is sure to sever their friendship. Whenever a knife
changes hands, it must be paid for, even if the sum is merely
nominal. I have seen a salesman, a graduate of the University
of Missouri, present his son with a valuable hunting knife but
he never let it out of his hand till the boy had given him a penny.
The accidental crossing of two case knives at the table must
be avoided, as it is likely to cause a desperate fight between
members of the family ; if knives are crossed inadvertently,
they must be touched only by the same person who crossed them.
If an Ozark woman finds a pair of scissors open, she closes them
instantly if she fails to do this she will quarrel with her
dearest friend before the moon changes. If one finds an open
clasp knife he snaps the blade shut immediately ; if it is a sheath
knife of the rigid kind, he thrusts the blade into the ground at
once.
A thoughtful hillman is careful to leave a neighbor's house by
the same door through which he entered, knowing that to vio-
late this simple rule may cause a serious quarrel. The host, on
his part, always politely turns away as a guest leaves his cabin
if he were to watch a departing friend out of sight he feels
that they might never meet again,
If the fire spits and sputters without any apparent cause, it
means that two members of the family will quarrel within twenty-
four hours.
It is very bad luck to return to the house for anything which
has been forgotten, or to come back to the house when you
have started to go somewhere. If you must return, however,
HOUSEHOLD SUPERSTITIONS 59
always make a cross in the dust of the road and spit on the cross,
before setting out again. Some old-timers insist that the cross
must be marked on the doorstep. Other people take the cuss off
by sitting down in a chair and counting ten, or sitting down
and making a wish, before leaving the cabin for the second
time. Some say one has only to sit down for a moment and spit
three times on the floor. Others think it is necessary to walk
backward out of the house, while counting "ten, nine, eight,
seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, AMEN !"
When a hillman starts out on a journey which he regards
as important, he is careful never to look back as he leaves his
own premises.
Some people won't drive down a road if they see a little
whirlwind in it a journey which takes one through a whirl-
wind is always unlucky.
It is bad luck to close a gate which one finds open, and the
mountain man who inadvertently does so is often quite upset ;
some hillfolk, starting on a journey, regard this matter of the
gate as such an evil omen that they postpone the trip until
another day.
I once knew a man near Pine Bluff, Arkansas, who threw
little pieces of tobacco into the river whenever he was about to
start on a journey. He was a white man, of some education, but
he had learned this propitiation of the river gods from Negroes,
I think.
When you meet a cross-eyed woman at a place where the
road forks, always spit in your hand, or on the ground, and
mark a cross in the saliva. One fellow told me that he always
spit in his hat on such occasions and "let the cross go by."
Some say it is well to cross one's fingers and count ten back-
ward, also.
When starting to visit someone, if you meet a flock of geese
you'll be a welcome guest, but if you find hogs in the road you
will not .be so well received.
60 HOUSEHOLD SUPERSTITIONS
To encounter a red-haired girl on a white horse is always
a good omen ; to meet a red-haired girl on a white mule is superla-
tive.
Some people of Polk county, Arkansas, believe that it is bad
luck to ride in a vehicle painted green. When a local sportsman
suffered a series of accidents on the new highway, Mrs. Emma
Dusenbury, of Mena, Arkansas, was heard to ask : "Well, what
could he expect, with that old green car?"
Never let anyone step directly into your tracks in mud or
snow, for this may cause headaches or even blindness. It is wise
not to step in anybody else's tracks, either.
When you find a pin in the road, never fail to pick it up :
See a pin, pick it up,
All day long, good luck;
See a pin, leave it lay,
Have bad luck all day.
Another view is that if the head of the pin is toward the finder
he will have good luck, but if the point is toward him it means
that he has a dangerous enemy to contend with.
To find a hairpin in the path means that you will soon meet a
new friend. If the prongs of the hairpin are of equal length,
the new friend will be a girl ; if one prong is a bit longer than
the other, it's a boy.
Never pick up a spoon lying in the road. Women who are un-
lucky in their household affairs sometimes throw away a spoon,
believing that their bad luck will pass to the person who picks
it up.
Many of the old settlers say that it is good luck to find a
rock with a hole in it, but that such a stone found in running
water is superlucky. At several homes in the Ozarks I have seen
little boxes containing stones with holes in them, placed under
the porch or the wooden doorstep. Near Marvel Cave, in Taney
county, Missouri, the Lynch sisters who own the cavern used
to have a lot of these stones strung on wire ; when Nancy Clemens
HOUSEHOLD SUPERSTITIONS 61
and I visited the place in 1936, Miss Miriam Lynch took down
one of these wires and gravely presented each of us with a lucky
stone. Some say that lucky stones keep off witches and evil
spirits; others tie one of the stones to a bedpost in the belief
that it somehow prevents nightmare. Near Harrison, Arkansas,
children are told that it is good luck to find a round stone with
a hole in it, but that such a stone must be thrown away at once
and never carried in the pocket.
Do not pick up a black or dark-colored button in the road.
There is some tale about such buttons being left by people who
think they are sick because of witchcraft, and that the sickness
will go to whoever picks up the button. I haven't been able to
get any definite information on this. Everybody agrees, how-
ever, that it is some sort of bad luck to pick up a black button
in the road. Children near Southwest City, Missouri, say that
when you find a button in your path it means that you will soon
receive a letter with as manv pages as there are holes in the
button. Asked if they picked up these "letter buttons" the chil-
dren answered that they always picked up white buttons and
carried them home, but that "Mommy don't want no black but-
tons."
A button received as a gift is always lucky, no matter what
the color. Years ago, many an Ozark girl collected buttons from
her friends and strung them together into a sort of necklace
called a charm string. A charm string not only brought good
fortune to the owner but also served as a sort of memory book
for women who could not read one button recalled a beloved
aunt, another a friend's wedding, still another a dance or a
quilting party or an apple-peelin' or some other pleasant occa-
sion. Nancy Clemens, of Springfield, Missouri, says that the
craze for charm strings once reached a point in Douglas county,
Missouri, where girls had to borrow pins to fasten their dresses
before they could go home from a party. May Stafford Hilburn
remarks that "each donor of a choice button came under the
62 HOUSEHOLD SUPERSTITIONS
charm, and nothing could break the friendship between that
person and the owner of the charm string." 2
Many hillfolk think that the man who finds a horseshoe with
the closed end toward him will do well to "leave it lay." If the
open end is toward the finder, he sometimes spits on it and
throws it over his left shoulder, a procedure which is supposed
to bring good fortune. Or he may place it in a tree or on a fence,
saying: "Hang thar, all my bad luck!" In this case, whoever
touches the hanging horseshoe falls heir to the misfortune of
the man who placed it there. In some parts of the Ozarks one
sees dozens of bad-luck horseshoes hanging in trees along the
roads, but no real old-timer will touch one of them for love or
money. Near the village of Day, Missouri, I have noticed that
even my old friend "Doc" Keithley walks wide of these horse-
shoes, although he is scornful of most taboos and superstitions.
Members of the older generation feel strongly that cornbread
must be broken it is very bad luck to cut it with a knife. Some
old-timers are much upset to see a stranger, even in a hotel, cut-
ting cornbread. I have known several who refused to eat at the
table where such a thing occurred but got up and left at once. A
"furrin" schoolmarm in McDonald county, Missouri, having
her first meal at the boardinghouse, offended everybody by cut-
ting a piece of cornpone. "Dang it, she's sp'iled the bread !"
muttered one young man, jumping up from the table.
I know several families near Big Flat, Arkansas, who have a
strange notion that one should never allow a piece of bread to
fall upon the ground the idea is that to do so will somehow
injure the next crop of corn.
There is an old saying that eating bread crusts brings good
luck in fishing and hunting, and also makes one's hair curly. I
think, however, that this is told to children in order to cajole
them into eating the crusts and is not taken very seriously by
adults.
When a small boy plays at stirring the fire, it is a sign that
* Missouri Magazine (December, 1933), p. 11.
HOUSEHOLD SUPERSTITIONS 63
he will urinate in his bed that night. This old saying prevents
many a little boy from messing with the fire, since whenever he
goes near it the other children begin to giggle. People in Baxter
county, Arkansas, tell a long story about a girl who was sitting
up with her beau, while her little brother kept running in and
stirring the fire ; this was regarded as very embarrassing, and
the poor girl's friends "plagued her plumb to death 'bout it."
To eat or drink at the same time one urinates or defecates
is very bad luck, and I have known children to be severely
whipped when the mother caught them eating candy in the
privy. The child who eats anything under such conditions is said
to be "feedin' the Devil an' starvin' God."
There is a persistent notion that Providence is somehow
tempted by stepping on cracks in the floor. Some people think
that a boy who fails to "miss the cracks" in the schoolhouse steps
will fail in his lessons that day and probably be punished for it.
Other hillfolk say that by stepping on cracks a boy does some
injury to his parents, and I have heard children quote the
rhyme :
Put your foot onto a crack
An' you will bust your mother's back.
It is bad luck to put the left shoe on before the right, or to
put the left foot out of bed first in the morning. Nearly every-
body in the Ozark backwoods is familiar with these notions, but
no one has ever told me just what will happen to a man if he
should violate such rules of conduct.
A woman mixing a cake always stirs the batter in one di-
rection if you stir it first one way and then another you'll
spoil the cake sure. Another thing to remember is that the per-
son who begins the stirring must stay with it and complete the
job, because if two persons try to divide the labor they may
as well throw the cake away. Mrs. W. D. Mathes of Galena,
Missouri, one of the best pastry cooks in the Ozarks, tells me
that cakes must be stirred by hand ; she has tried several sorts
of electric mixers but never had any luck with them. It is said
64 HOUSEHOLD SUPERSTITIONS
that a good cook never allows anyone else to stir the dough
that she is to bake, but what is supposed to result from the vio-
lation of this rule I have never been able to learn.
One often encounters an ancient notion that a woman render-
ing out lard will never have any luck unless she stirs it with a
sassafras "bat," and I have known women to walk quite a dis-
tance in order to get a proper stick for this purpose ; some say
that the bark of the sassafras actually flavors the lard or keeps
it from becoming rancid.
There are several interesting superstitions about soft soap,
which is made by cooking lye with waste fats from the kitchen.
Lye is obtained by pouring water through wood ashes, which
are carefully saved in a wooden trough called an ash hopper.
Some old-timers say that it is impossible to make lye from the
ashes of cherry wood ; it is said that the remains of a small twig
from a cherry tree, or even a single chip that got into the fire
by mistake, will ruin a whole hopperful of good ashes.
Nearly all of the old-timers think that soap will not "make"
unless it is stirred by a member of the family "a strange hand
skeers the soap," as the old saying goes. Some believe that soap
cooked in March thickens quicker and is somehow superior to
that produced at any other season. In the dark of the moon,
soap "biles high round the edges an' low in the middle," but in
the light of the moon it "spatters up high in the middle of the
kettle." Soap made in the increase of the moon is light in color ;
that made in the decrease of the moon is considerably darker. I
believe that the majority of soapmakers prefer to work in the
dark of the moon, but there is no unanimity about this. "You
can make good soap when the moon's a-fullin', or you can make
it right on the full," said an old woman in Stone county, Mis-
souri, "but don't never try to cook soap when the moon's
a-wanin', or it won't be no good at all."
In making vinegar from molasses and rain water, the Ozark
housewife hastens fermentation by putting in nine grains of
corn, which she names for the meanest, sourest persons of her
HOUSEHOLD SUPERSTITIONS 65
acquaintance. This is usually regarded as a sort of joke, but I
know many women who never fail to do it, even while they laugh
at the idea that it really helps the vinegar. Mrs. C. P. Mahnkey,
Mincy, Missouri, tells me that she never troubled to name the
grains of corn, but was always careful to put in nine grains, no
more and no less. It was mighty good vinegar too, she says.
Some hillfolk believe that there is no use in trying to make
cider or wine when the moon is waning it will turn sour every
time. Others tell me that the best cider is made in clear weather,
with the wind a-blowin' from the west, and the moon has nothing
to do with it. There is an old proverb to the effect that the best
way to keep cider sweet is to drown a water snake in it, but
this is not to be taken literally. Who wants to keep cider sweet,
anyhow?
Ordinary sauerkraut can be put up without any reference to
the moon's phases, or the signs of the zodiac. What is called
turnipkraut, however, must be made in one of the "fruitful
signs," after the full of the moon ; the brine comes to the top
and runs over, if you try to make turnipkraut in the increase of
the moon.
It is generally believed that a menstruating woman can per-
form all of her ordinary household tasks save one she can't
pickle cucumbers. I have known women who laughed at most
of the backwoods superstitions yet were convinced that there
was something in this idea. One girl told me that she and her
sister had tried it out repeatedly, and that the pickles prepared
by a girl who was menstruating were always soft or flabby, never
properly crisp.
Akin to this is the notion that a "bad woman can't make good
applesauce" it will always be mushy, and not sufficiently tart.
This is so generally accepted in some sections as to have passed
into the language, and the mere statement that a certain woman's
applesauce is no good is generally understood as a slighting
reference to her morals.
Many apparently insignificant actions must be avoided
66 HOUSEHOLD SUPERSTITIONS
simply because they are regarded as unlucky, although no spe-
cific penalty is attached to them. For example, it is bad luck to
sit on a trunk, or for two persons to sit in one chair at the same
time, or to rock a rocking chair when there is nobody in it, or
to enter a strange house by the back door, or to count the cars
in a train, or to throw water out of a window, or to sleep too
near a spring, or to set two lights on one shelf, or to put a stamp
upside down on a letter, or to tell a dream at the table, or to
begin any important task on a holiday which falls in the light
of the moon. Nobody knows just what would happen if one
should violate these "chimney-corner laws," but many hillfolk
avoid doing so whenever possible, anyhow.
To turn a chair around with one leg as a pivot is always
bad luck, and leads to family quarrels. Otto Ernest Rayburn
quotes a backwoods girl: "If anybody twirled a chair on one
of its legs, we knew father would come home mad as a wet hen
about something." 3
The typical hillman is upset by any trifling piece of ill luck
which happens on his birthday, knowing that one who is unfor-
tunate on this particular day is likely to have bad luck all year.
It is unlucky to cut your fingernails on Sunday you'll have
a pain in the neck for seven days, or the Devil will rule your
house all week, or something of the sort. It's bad luck to trim
fingernails on Friday, too. Monday is the best day for this, and
it is said that people who cut their fingernails on Monday will
always have plenty of money.
White spots on fingernails are supposed to represent lies, and
little boys often hide their hands to avoid betraying falsehoods.
However, there is a fortunetelling rhyme children use when
counting these white spots :
A gift, a ghost, a friend, a foe,
A letter to come, a journey to go.
Some people say that a large white spot means a journey
Ozark Country, p. 156.
HOUSEHOLD SUPERSTITIONS 67
when the spot grows to the end of the nail, you will start on a
trip to some distant place.
It is unwise to laugh early in the morning, particularly be-
fore getting out of bed. There is an old saying that the woman
who laughs before breakfast will cry before supper. Another
version lingers in the jingle:
Laugh before it's light,
You'll cry before it's night.
Singing before breakfast is also discouraged in the familiar
verse :
Sing before you eat,
You'll cry before you sleep.
The child who sings in bed, or at the table, is likely to bring
misfortune upon the whole family and come to a bad end as in-
dicated in the old rhyme:
Sing at the table,
Sing in bed,
Bugger-man will get you
When you are dead !
It is also very bad luck to whistle or sing while urinating or
defecating, and the child who does so is certain to get a whip-
ping before sundown, but there isn't any little verse about this
so far as I know.
There is some sort of sign in the flame of a candle, which in-
dicates that a letter is coming. While the "letter sign" lasts, a
girl who spies it begins to count, rapping on the table with each
numeral, and thus determines how many days will pass before
the letter arrives. Otto Ernest Rayburn mentions this but doesn't
make it clear just what happens in the candle flame. 4 There is
an old song entitled "The Letter in the Candle," which appar-
ently refers to this business.
The woman who suddenly finds a large hole in her stocking
regards it as a sign that there is a letter waiting for her at
Rayburn' s Roadside Chats, p. 23.
68 HOUSEHOLD SUPERSTITIONS
the post office. When a hillman sees a big spider exactly in the
middle of the path, he knows that he'll get a letter within a few
days. If coffee grounds cling to the sides of a cup, near the bot-
tom, one may expect a letter with good news in it.
When a woman is opening a jar of fruit, and some of the
juice spatters into her face, it means that she will hear some
welcome news very soon. It is also a sign of good tidings to
drop a glass vessel without breaking it. If a man gets charcoal
into his hair, accidentally, his friends assure him that he is
about to receive a letter containing money.
Mrs. Coral Almy Wilson, of Zinc, Arkansas, reports that her
neighbors pay close attention to sweat flies, which they call
news bees. A yellow news bee buzzing round one's head means
that good news is coming, while a black news bee is a sign of
bad tidings.
If a woman accidentally splits a wooden clothespin, so that
it falls in two separate pieces, she may expect some bad news
from her husband's people.
If there happens to be a snowfall in May, the housewife is
supposed to melt some of the snow in the fireplace a sure way
to kill all the fleas and bedbugs in the house. The same happy
result is said to be obtained by burning a dirty dishrag the first
time you hear it thunder in March. Some Ozark women scatter
fresh walnut or butternut leaves about their houses to repel
insects, but I can't see that it does any good. Burning old shoes
on the hearth is a well-known method of driving snakes out of a
house ; a schoolmaster who has been to college and made a par-
ticular study of reptiles tells me that there may be some truth
in this, but I suspect it is merely another superstition.
When backwoods people are troubled by fleas, they just
bring a sheep into the cabin for a few days ; the fleas all flock
to the animal's wool and are thus disposed of. I knew a man
in Springfield, Missouri, who wanted to put a sheep into the
basement of his daughter's fine new house, but she was too high-
falutin; said she'd rather put up with fleas in the bedroom
HOUSEHOLD SUPERSTITIONS 69
than have a damned stinking sheep in the cellar. A smart fel-
low from Lincoln, Arkansas, tells me that there are never any
fleas in a sheepherder's house, but where a farmer has lots of
hogs and no sheep, you'll find fleas all over the place.
A mountain girl who wants a new dress has only to catch
a butterfly of the desired color and crush it between her teeth ;
she mutters some sort of a charm, too, while the insect is in her
mouth, but I have never been able to obtain the magic formula.
It is said also that the woman who shakes her apron at the new
moon, under certain conditions, will get a new dress very shortly
but this latter observation is regarded as somehow improper,
and I am not certain just what is meant by it. I have heard
allusions to this saying many times, however, all the way from
Hot Springs, Arkansas, to Poplar Bluff, Missouri, so I record
it here for what it may be worth.
Mrs. May Kennedy McCord, of Springfield, Missouri, says
that the old women she knew as a girl were very careful never to
make what is called a "diamond fold" in ironing table linen or
bed sheets anything folded "diamond-shaped" is likely to bring
bad luck on the entire household.
Handwoven coverlets and the like should always be washed
in snow water, according to the old grannies ; some say to ease
the spirits of the dead women who made them years ago ; others
contend more practically that snow water does not cause the
old homemade colors to run or fade. Many hillf oik believe that it
is bad luck to mend an old quilt or comforter by patching,
although there's no harm in darning small rips or tears.
The Ozark housewife seldom begins to make a garment on
Friday never unless she is sure that she can finish it the same
day. Many a mountain man is reluctant to start any sort of
job on Saturday, in the belief that he will "piddle around" for
six additional Saturdays before he gets it done.
A woman who breaks a needle while making a garment for
her own use is horrified, fearing that she will never live to wear
it out. If the garment is intended for somebody else it doesn't
70 HOUSEHOLD SUPERSTITIONS
matter at all, as in that case the broken needle has no sinister
significance.
A mountain woman who sews after sunset, or who pours
water on a window sill, will be poverty-stricken all her life. A
basting inadvertently left in a garment is also a sign of poverty ;
some people think it means that the cloth is not paid for.
It is very unfortunate for a woman to button a new gar-
ment before it has been worn ; a newly made shirt should be but-
toned first on the person who is to wear it, but if this person is
not available, button it around somebody else.
If you put on a garment wrong side out, it means good luck,
but you must wear it that way until bedtime. There are many
tales of men who refused to do this and were carried home dead
before the day was over. It is not uncommon for girls in high
school and even in college to attend classes with their petti-
coats wrong side out because of this superstition.
Many of the old folks figure that May 1 is the proper day
to shed heavy winter underwear. Children begin to go barefoot
on May 1 too, for the first time that summer. "If you start on
May Day," an old woman told me, "you can go bar'foot plumb
till snow flies, an' it won't hurt ye a bit !"
Winter clothing is packed away with fresh sassafras leaves,
which are said to keep out insects much better than mothballs.
The sassafras leaves don't work, however, unless a certain secret
sayin' is repeated as the clothes are being packed.
Every old quiltmaker knows that when a quilt is once stretched
on the frame it must never be turned around ; if it is turned, at
least one of the quilters will lose her skill, or her eyesight will
fail, or her hands become paralyzed.
It is bad luck to burn floor sweepings or shavings that have
been produced inside the house. An old-time Ozark housewife
seldom sweeps her cabin after dark, and she never sweeps any-
thing out at the front door. Otto Ernest Rayburn observes that
"one of the most progressive merchants in Arkansas will not
permit his janitor to sweep dirt out through the door after
HOUSEHOLD SUPERSTITIONS 71
dark." 5 A woman in Madison county, Arkansas, told me that
ghosts and spirits are accustomed to stand about near cabins
at night, and it is dangerous to offend these supernatural beings
by throwing dirt in their faces. Sweepings are best gathered
up and carried out of the house or swept down through a wide
crack in the floor so as to fall beneath the cabin, although there
are hillfolk who see no harm in sweeping dirt out at the back
door always in the daytime, of course. Some people say that
once you begin to sweep a room, it is bad luck to stop before the
job is done. Many women are careful never to sweep the house
on Monday, even in broad daylight, as this is likely to sweep
away the family's "money luck" for the entire week.
Mrs. C. P. Mahnkey, Mincy, Missouri, tells me that no true
hillbilly ever burns walnut shells. If a walnut shell is inadver-
tently cast into the fire, some member of the family hastens to
snatch it out at any cost.
The hulls or skins of certain vegetables, on the other hand,
are always burned, never disposed of in any other manner. I
have known households where the women made a great show
of saving onion peelings, which were carefully gathered up and
burned in the fireplace or the cookstove. One woman told me that
people who throw onion peel out on the ground are likely to
suffer some financial reverses, and that she knew personally of
a case in which carelessness in this matter caused a Civil War
veteran to be deprived of his pension.
Never look directly into a fire that is being kindled; if you
do it will not burn properly and may bring bad luck to the
whole household besides. Some hill people become quite irritated
if a guest persists in staring straight into a stove or fireplace,
when it is not burning well. To do so is very bad manners and
somehow appears to cast discredit upon the family.
It is said that lightning often strikes a cookstove but has
never been known to strike one with a fire in it. In Baxter county,
Arkansas, several persons warned me never to sit in the "dog
& Ozark Country, p. 146.
72 HOUSEHOLD SUPERSTITIONS
run" the covered passage between the two rooms of a log
house during an electrical storm ; it seems that lightning often
goes through such a passage, killing dogs which have taken
refuge there, without damaging the house proper. I know many
backwoods families who always try to drive the hounds away
from their cabins during a thunderstorm, in the belief that "a
dog's tail draws lightnin'."
In some sections of Arkansas there are people who bury the
entrails of a black hen under the hearth on "Old Christmas."
This is said to protect the house against destruction by light-
ning or fire. A gentleman at Hot Springs, Arkansas, told me
that people used to do this when he was a boy, but added con-
temptuously that it was "just an old nigger superstition," and
that he did not believe it was taken seriously by any white peo-
ple nowadays. However, I know that some "peckerwood fam-
ilies" did bury chicken guts under their hearths as recently as
1935, not far from the enlightened metropolis of Hot Springs.
A lot of backwoods families are very careful not to use the
wood of a lightnin'-struck tree for fuel, in the belief that this
renders the cabin more likely to be struck by lightning.
Many hillmen believe that black walnut trees draw lightning
and will not go near them in a storm. It is quite common for
hillfolk to cut down all the walnuts, even little ones, that grow
near their cabins.
When lightning strikes the ground, some woodsmen pretend
to look around for the thunderbolt, which is supposed to be a
piece of iron about three feet long, forked at one end. These
thunderbolts are said to be used in making fish gigs, and a
finger ring hammered out of thunderbolt iron is a sure cure for
rheumatism. I have myself seen, in Washington county, Arkan-
sas, an old iron ring which the owner told me was made of a
thunderbolt recovered in Kentucky before 1815.
I have met hillmen who think that it is bad luck to use the
word thunder, particularly during an electrical storm. They
feel that people who keep talking about thunder are likely to
HOUSEHOLD SUPERSTITIONS 73
get struck by lightning. Instead of saying thunder, they use
some familiar circumlocution, such as "the 'tater wagon is
a-rollm'," or "they're crossin' the old bridge now." Some Ozark
farmers deliberately cross their "galluses" on stormy days to
guard against lightning, but the man who gets his galluses
crossed accidentally, when he puts on his trousers in the morn-
ing, will have bad luck all day.
It is very generally believed that thunder and lightning cause
milk to sour in a few hours, even in the coldest weather. This
can be prevented, however, by putting a rusty nail in the crock
or pan. A man who was looked upon as exceptionally intelli-
gent and "well posted/' who served several terms in the Missouri
state legislature, assured me that this was no superstition at
all but a well-established scientific datum, adding that the rusty
nail "works somethin' like a lightnin'-rod."
In November, 1943, a big flock of wild geese was struck by
lightning at Galena, Missouri, and about three hundred of the
birds fell near the village. People went out and picked them up.
I got one myself, which we roasted next day, and found it very
good indeed. Many people in the vicinity ate them, with no bad
results so far as I could find out. But several families would
not touch these geese, saying that it was dangerous to eat any
creature killed by electricity.
It is very bad luck to bring cedar boughs or mistletoe into
the house, except during the Christmas season. Mrs. Isabel
Spradley, Van Buren, Arkansas, says that every bit of green
stuff must be out of the house before midnight on January 5, or
some unspeakable calamity will overtake the whole family. Many
old people feel that it is better not to have mistletoe in the house
at all. It is always bad luck to carry peacock feathers into a
cabin, and several hillfolk actually refused to sleep in my cot-
tage because an old-fashioned fan made of peacock feathers was
nailed to the wall as a decoration.
Never carry a hoe or a mattock into the house, even to prevent
the tool from being stolen. If a hillman does bring a hoe into his
74 HOUSEHOLD SUPERSTITIONS
cabin by mistake, he must carry it out again at once, walking
backward. Most people agree, however, that there is no harm
in keeping hoes or mattocks under a porch, or even beneath the
floor of the cabin itself.
It is always bad luck to place a hat or a shoe or a rifle on a
bed. Mountain men sleep with pistols under their pillows, how-
ever, without any bad results. Never place a shoe or shoes on
the table in a hillman's cabin ; this applies even to brand-new
shoes in a box, or in a sealed mailing carton just arrived from
Montgomery Ward or Sears and Roebuck.
The mountain housewife is careful never to drop a broom
so that it falls flat on the floor, and it is doubly unfortunate
for a woman to step over a broom handle. Some people say that
when a girl, even a very young girl baby, steps over a broom
it is a sign that she will be a slovenly housekeeper all her life.
A person may go barefoot or shod anywhere, but it is tempt-
ing fate to go out of doors in one's stocking feet, or to walk
even in the house with one shoe off and one shoe on.
Hillfolk seldom remodel their houses, except to add a lean-to
or "shed room" when an increasing family demands more space.
It is bad luck to cut a doorway between two rooms after the
house is built, and the average backwoods family will not do
this under any condition.
A hillman courts misfortune if he moves his family from one
house to another in the dark of the moon, and I have known
otherwise intelligent people to put up with a deal of incon-
venience rather than make such a move. Even in a case where
a house is destroyed by fire, some hillfolk prefer to camp under
a ledge, or sleep in a wagon, until such time as the moon is "fa-
vorable" that is, at the appearance of the new moon. The
idea is that the family's prosperity will increase as the moon
waxes.
In building a new dwelling, the old-time hillman was careful
to use a few timbers from an older building. A house composed
HOUSEHOLD SUPERSTITIONS 75
entirely of new lumber is sure to bring bad luck, usually sick-
ness or death, upon the persons who live in it.
If you find your initials in spider webs near the door of a
new home, it is a sign that you will be lucky as long as you live
there. No furniture or supplies should be carried into a new
house until the salt and pepper are in their proper places on a
shelf. An empty hornets' nest is hung up in the loft of nearly
every old-time mountain cabin, and I have seen such a nest tied
to the rafters of a new house that had not yet been occupied ;
some people say that this brings good fortune to the whole
household, particularly in connection with childbirth and other
sexual matters.
Most people think that it is good luck if a strange black
cat visits the house, but very bad luck if the animal takes up
its permanent abode there. To carry a stray cat into a house
brings bad luck, and children are often warned against this
folly. It is always bad luck to kill a cat, but the hillfolk do not
hesitate to drive a cat away by all sorts of cruel treatment.
One of my neighbors in McDonald county, Missouri, would
not kill a cat which had annoyed him, but he chopped off one
of its feet and threw the animal out into the snow. Whatever
happens, never burn a dead cat; bury it deep in the ground,
or throw it into a running stream.
A few hillfolk say that it is good luck to see a white cat on
the road; there is some difference of opinion about this, but
everybody agrees that it is a very bad sign when a black cat
crosses ahead of a traveler. Many Ozark people turn back or
detour to avoid crossing a black cat's trail. I have seen coun-
trymen near Little Rock, Arkansas, take off their hats and
turn 'em around on their heads, after seeing a black cat in the
path. Black cats are worst, of course. But many people are a
bit leery of all cats, particularly on the highways. "I'd just as
soon there wouldn't be 710 cat runnin' acrost the road ahead of
me," said an old man near Elsey, Missouri, in
76 HOUSEHOLD SUPERSTITIONS
It is very bad luck to be photographed with a cat. I was at
Rose O'Neill's place in Taney county, Missouri, when a photog-
rapher came out from St. Louis to make some pictures of Miss
O'Neill and her house. He took one photo which showed a group
of us in the O'Neill library, with the family cat crouching on a
table. This was later published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch*
and I showed the paper to one of the neighbors. "God Al-
mighty," she shivered, "I wouldn't have set in that there picture
for a hundred acres o' land !"
A girl who drops the comb while combing her hair is doomed
to some sort of disappointment, but she may "take the cuss off"
in a measure by counting backward from ten as she retrieves the
comb. To open an umbrella inside a house is tempting Provi-
dence, but very few of the real backwoods women own umbrellas
anyhow, so it doesn't matter much.
It is said that misfortunes always go in threes, and this is
especially true of household mishaps. The housewife who smashes
a dish, or burns the cornbread, or barks her shin on the oven
door generally expects two more minor accidents before the
spell is broken.
The woman who happens to get her first glimpse of the new
moon unobstructed by foliage "cl'ar o' brush," as the old
folks put it considers herself lucky. "Everyone knows," writes
May Stafford Hilburn, "that to see the new moon through the
leafy branches of a tree means bad luck throughout the month.
It still gives me cold shivers to see the moon behind treetops,
and I hastily close my eyes, remembering an old 'charm' of
childhood, clasp my hands over my heart and say 'bad luck,
vanish !' Then I feel better." 6 A housewife who sees the new
moon through a windowpane fears that she will break a valued
dish, or some other piece of household equipment, before the
moon is new again.
Some of my present associates do not profess religion and
never go to church but are nevertheless convinced that it is very
Missouri Magazine (September, 1933), p. 20.
HOUSEHOLD SUPERSTITIONS 77
bad luck to do any work about the house on the Sabbath. An old
man who is known all over the country as an outspoken free-
thinker told me soberly : "I don't hold with this here church
business, an' I don't never feed no preachers. But I believe that
if a man works six days a week he'll have plenty, and if the
same man works seven days a week he's liable to starve out !"
Another neighbor assured me that a roof mended during the
Christmas holidays will leak worse than ever, and that a spring
or well cleaned out on Sunday is likely to go dry.
A great many of the old-timers call December 25 "New
Christmas" in order to distinguish it from "Old Christmas,"
which falls on January 6. They tell me that in pioneer days
nearly everybody celebrated Christmas twelve days later than
they do now. Old folks say that elderberry always sprouts on the
eve of Old Christmas even if the ground is frozen hard, you'll
find the little green shoots under the snow. A man at Pineville,
Missouri, told me that bees in a hive always buzz very loudly
exactly at midnight on the eve of Old Christmas ; if several bee
gums are set close together, the "Old Christmas hum" can be
heard some distance away. This shows that January 6, not De-
cember 25, is the real Christmas.
Mrs. Isabel Spradley, Van Buren, Arkansas, tells me that
the old folks in her neighborhood sometimes call January 6
"Green Christmas" or the "Twelfth Night." It is on January 5,
the eve of Old Christmas, that the cattle are supposed to kneel
down and bellow, exactly at midnight, in honor of the birth of
Jesus. Some say that the critters have the gift of speech on this
night, so that they may pray aloud in English. Mrs. Spradley
quotes an old woman with reference to the family water supply :
"Our well had a charm put on it the night the cows talked, and I
wouldn't clean it out for silver !" I don't know what the charm
is that this old woman referred to, but there are people in
Arkansas today who say that the water in certain wells turns
into wine at midnight on January 5.
It is said that on the morning of Old Christmas there are
78 HOUSEHOLD SUPERSTITIONS
two daybreaks instead of one I have talked with men who claim
to have seen this phenomenon. Boys born on Old Christmas are
supposed to be very lucky in raising cattle ; some say that these
"Old Christmas children" can actually talk the cow brute's
language.
There are old men in the Ozarks today who swear that they
have actually seen cattle kneel down and bellow on Old Christ-
mas eve. But skepticism sometimes prevails, even in the Ozarks.
A neighbor tells me that when he was a boy he watched re-
peatedly to see his father's oxen kneel but was always disap-
pointed. His parents told him, however, that the presence of a
human observer broke the spell, and that cattle must always
salute the Saviour in private. "But I just drawed a idy right
thar," he added thoughtfully, "that they warn't nothin' to it,
nohow."
In some settlements this notion about the cattle kneeling has
shifted from Old Christmas to New Year's. Mr. Elbert Short,
of Crane, Missouri, told me that his sister slipped out to the
barn one New Year's Eve "to see the critters kneel down and
talk." At exactly twelve o'clock one old cow fell on her knees
and let out two or three low moans. A moment later another
animal knelt but with this the girl suddenly became fright-
ened and ran back to the house. Another funny thing, says Mr.
Short, is that if you go out before midnight on New Year's
Eve and cut an elderbush off flush with the ground, by sunrise
it will have "pooched up" at least two inches.
Every backwoods family, even if no member of the group is
able to read, has a calendar and probably an almanac as well,
in order to keep track of the signs and phases of the moon. But
it is very bad luck to hang up a calendar or almanac before
sunup on New Year's Day, and I have known children to be
severely punished for doing so.
An unexpected visitor on January 1 signifies that many others
will come to the house during the year; this prediction is often
regarded with mixed emotions, since hillfolk do not care for
80 HOUSEHOLD SUPERSTITIONS
saying: "On New Year's you just eat black-eyed peas, with a
dime under your plate, an' wear a pair of red garters, an' you'll
have good luck the whole year."
A dish known as hoppinjohn, which consists of black-eyed
peas cooked with hog jowl, is the traditional New Year's din-
ner in many well-to-do families who would not eat such coarse
food on any other day. Mr. Walter Ridgeway, of West Plains,
Missouri, always contended that this custom began in Civil
War days ; some planters who had nothing to eat but black-
eyed peas at a New Year's dinner were lucky enough to regain
their fortunes, and later on they somehow connected this good
luck with the New Year's hoppinjohn. Other hillfolk, however,
have told me that the custom of eating black-eyed peas on New
Year's is much older than the War between the States. The
Ridgeways say that the name hoppinjohn originated when a
guest named John was invited to "hop in" and help himself to
the food.
Perhaps the most striking feature of the Ozarkers' New Year's
behavior is their reluctance to allow anything to be taken out
of the house on January 1. I once knew a woman who absent-
mindedly carried a bucket of ashes out on New Year's morning ;
she was shaken almost to the point of hysteria, and the whole
family was horrified, although nobody seemed to know just
what specific calamity was supposed to result.
Many broad-minded modernists pretend that there is no harm
in carrying something out, provided you are careful to take
something else in ; thus it's permissible to throw out a pan of
potato peelings if one immediately lugs in a bucket of water
or an armload of wood. The real old-timers figure it is safer not
to carry anything out of the cabin on January 1, but to pack
in as much stuff as possible. Some old folks take this so seriously
that they will not allow anyone to enter on that day without
depositing something, even if it is only a few walnuts or a hand-
ful of chips. This precaution, according to the old tradition,
insures a whole year of plenty for the people who live in that
HOUSEHOLD SUPERSTITIONS
81
house. "It aint much trouble, just for one day," an old man
said as he insisted that I get a stick from the woodpile before
coming into his shanty, "an* me an' Maw don't aim to take no
chances."
5. Water Witches
Nearly all of the old settlers in the
Ozark country believe that certain per-
sons can locate underground streams by
"cunjurin' round" with forked sticks. These characters are
called water witches or witch wigglers, and the forked switches
they carry are known as witch sticks. Despite this sinister
terminology, the waterfinder has no dealings with the Devil, is
not regarded as dangerous by his neighbors, and has nothing
to do with witchcraft proper.
I have known several water witches intimately and have seen
more than a score of them at work, and there is no doubt that
they themselves are sincere believers in their ability to find
water. Nearly all of the really old wells in the Ozarks were lo-
cated by witch wigglers. Even today there are many substantial
farmers who would never think of drilling a well without getting
one of these fellows to witch the land.
When I first came to Pineville, Missouri, in 1919, Dr. Oakley
St. John was the only educated person in the village. He was
an outspoken atheist and materialist, the last man whom one
would expect to find involved in any superstitious practice. But
the neighbors all told me that Doc was the best witch wiggler
in the Ozarks, with the possible exception of old John Havard,
who used to live over in Greene county. So I took to hanging
around St. John's little drugstore, and tried to talk with him
about these matters.
The doctor parried my questions for a long time, but finally
admitted that he had located a large number of wells.
"I used to laugh at this water-witch business," he told me,
"but I got to fooling with it one day, and discovered that I'm
WATER WITCHES 83
a pretty good witch wiggler myself. I can't defend the thing
scientifically, but I can find water in these hills. I've never staked
a dry hole yet."
"But how do you do it. Doctor?" I asked.
"Well, I just cut me a green fork off a peach tree some fel-
lows use witch hazel or redbud, but peach always works better
for me and take one prong in each hand. Then I walk slowly
back and forth, holding the fork in front of me, parallel with
the ground. When I cross an underground stream the witch
stick turns in my hands, so that the main stem points down
toward the water. Then I drive a stake in the ground to mark
the place, and that's where I tell 'em to dig their well."
After a little more talk we went to an old peach orchard,
where the doctor trimmed up a nice witch stick. The thing looked
very much like a slingshot handle, except that it was nearly
three feet long. Climbing through the fence, we strode out into
a big pasture. Thrusting the stick forward, St. John walked
across the rocky hillside, with me close at his heels. Suddenly,
he hesitated, then moved forward very slowly, the green switch
turning and twisting in his hands. There he stood, holding the
thing as if it were a living, writhing reptile.
"Look at that !" he cackled triumphantly. "I couldn't hold it
still if I tried ! It would twist the bark right off the God damn'
stick !"
I shivered a little and felt as if the hair were rising on the
back of my neck. There was something uncanny and obscene
about that witch stick.
"Let me have the thing a minute," I said shakily.
St. John handed it over, and I carried it back and forth ex-
actly as he had done. But nothing happened. The stick in my
hands was just a stick, and nothing more.
The moment I returned it to the doctor the thing began to
twist about and point to the ground, just as it had before. Evi-
dently the power, whatever it is, resides in the man and not in
the witch stick itself.
S4> WATER WITCHES
"If you were to dig right here," St. John declared, "you'd
get a good well, sure. And you wouldn't have to go more than
thirty feet, either."
"How do you tell about the depth, Doctor?"
"Well, I judge by the strength of the pull on the stick," he
answered. "If the water's too far down it doesn't register at all,
and the nearer it is to the surface, the stronger it pulls. I just
kind of guess at it," St. John added, "but you'd be surprised
how close I come to the truth !"
Another water witch named Truman Powell, who lived near
Reeds Spring, Missouri, and is still remembered as one of the
explorers of Marvel Cave, used to defend a different method
of estimating depth. Powell always marked the spot where he
first felt a pull on the stick and then drove another stake at the
place where the pull was most intense. The distance between
these two points, he said, was equal to the depth of the well.
Otto Ernest Rayburn, of Eureka Springs, Arkansas, tells of
a witch wiggler who determined the depth by walking away
from the stake, counting his steps, until the stick regained its
normal horizontal position; multiply the number of steps by
three, and this gives the number of feet it is necessary to dig.
There was also the veteran waterfinder interviewed by
Betrenia Watt in Hickory county, Missouri, who claimed that
his witch stick moved downward by a series of separate jerks.
Each of these "nods" or "beats," said he, represents a foot, and
one has only to count them in order to determine how far the
water lies beneath the surface of the ground.
Dr. St. John told me about a chap named Patterson, of
Carter county, Missouri, who was rated as the best "witcher"
in all that region for many years. Using a peach-tree switch,
he once located "living water" at a depth of only five feet, in
the middle of the dryest summer that ever hit the Ozarks. One
of Patterson's aunts "follered the witchin' trade" for awhile
but gave it up because some tourists laughed at her.
J. O. Jackson, an early settler in Springfield, Missouri, used
WATER WITCHES 85
to "project round" with a hazel or peach-tree stick. "Dig right
there," he would say, "an' if ye don't git water at forty feet
I'll pay for th' diggin'." There is no record of his ever having
to pay. It was Jackson who located the big well behind the
Lyon House on Commercial Street, the best hotel in Spring-
field in the seventies and early eighties. Jackson always refused
to accept money for his witching, being convinced that to do so
might weaken his mysterious power.
The late A. M. Has well, of Joplin, Missouri, was a well-known
water witch but never became superstitious about it. "The
switch certainly does move in my hands," said he. "Whether
that movement is caused by underground water, I do not know.
All I know is that without the least aid from me indeed in
spite of the strongest grip I can apply to it the switch does
move." Haswell experimented with several varieties of wood,
but always claimed that a hazel twig was much superior to any
other. "Some fellows prefer the wahoo, which used to be called
Vitch elm,' but a good hazel fork works better for me." The
hazel bush preferred by Mr. Haswell is still known as witch hazel
in some localities.
There is a very general notion that virility has something to
do with this "power," and that certain physical qualifications
are essential to a good witch wiggler. "A feller has got to be a
whole man," one old gentleman said, "if he aims to take up
witch wigglin'." He meant that a water witch must be normal
sexually ; a man who has anything wrong with his genitals can
never locate wells with a witch stick. Some hillfolk say that
women and children can't work the forked stick; I have never
seen a child operate the thing successfully, though I have known
many who tried it. I have met several women witch wigglers,
however, and they seemed to do about as well as their male
colleagues.
Mrs. Ethel Davis, of Huggins, Missouri, differs from most
water witches in that she uses a wild-plum branch instead of
peach or witch hazel. Mrs. Dinnie B. McBride, of Licking,
86 WATER WITCHES
Missouri, has been very successful in locating wells and is quoted
as saying that most any sort of green switch will do in a
pinch ; if one forked stick doesn't work to suit her, she throws
it away and tries another. Mrs. Bettie Williams, of Bolivar, Mis-
souri, is firmly convinced that water witching somehow runs in
families. She cites several cases in which the "power" seems to
have been inherited. "My mother-in-law witched all the country
around Bolivar, and always found water," she declares, "and
my oldest son, E. A. Williams, can do the same thing." Mrs. May
Kennedy McCord, of Springfield, Missouri, agrees with Mrs.
Williams and others that the necessary magnetism must be an
hereditary trait. "I have seen the power of water-witching run
in families," she writes, "girls and all!"
My old friend Otto Ernest Rayburn, of Eureka Springs, Ar-
kansas, himself an amateur water witch, told me that it may
be true that the ability runs in families, but he thinks that only
one member of each generation has the "power" to witch water.
There used to be so many witch wigglers at Butler, Missouri,
that in 1934 they organized a "Water Surveyors' Club," with
George Hartrick as president. The following is taken from a
signed article which Mr. Hartrick published in the local news-
paper :
Last Summer we located many a good well during the drouth, by the
use of the stick. Many of the members learned how to tell the depth
of the water, and so forth. . . . We do not feel that this is a divine
gift any more than the power of music or art. It is the duty of all to
use their gifts for the progress of humanity. All persons cannot
locate objects with the water-witching stick any more than all can
be musicians. Everyone is welcome to our meetings, and we welcome
any information on the subject. Water-witching is riot a new activity,
as Jacob in the Bible located his living well of water by this method. 1
Dr. F. A. Middlebush, president of the University of Mis-
souri, has experimented with witch wiggling. "I can vouch for
the fact that a properly selected and trimmed branch will move
in my hands," he writes, "but I failed to apply this mysterious
i Springfield (Missouri) News, April 28, 1938.
WATER WITCHES 87
art when I had a well dug at my place in the Ozarks, near Cam-
denton, Missouri." Dr. Middlebush says that Professor J. W.
Rankin, of the English department at the University of Mis-
souri, also claims to be an expert water witch. Mayor Bryce B.
Smith of Kansas City is another amateur witch wiggler, accord-
ing to his friends. It appears that Middlebush, Rankin, and
Smith all use the conventional peach-tree fork.
In the 1930's, when a well was to be drilled at a golf club
near Springfield, Missouri, it appears that those in authority
wanted to have the ground witched but were laughed out of it
by the younger members. The well was said to be three hundred
feet deep, but it never produced water enough for the clubhouse.
So they decided to drill another well, and this time, rather sur-
reptitiously, they called in the water witches. These fellows
went over the golf course with their peach-tree switches and
located a new place for the drillers. And this second well, ac-
cording to local testimony, was quite satisfactory to all con-
cerned.
Several witch wigglers have told me that in southeast Mis-
souri, along the Mississippi River, there are men who claim
to locate wells with willow switches. "But I don't put no con-
fidence in wilier myself," said an old fellow in Neosho, Missouri.
"Them folks down at Cape Girardeau must be a turrible igno-
rant set, or else they'd know better'n that."
Near Everton, Missouri, lives a famous water witch named
Fred Goudy, distinguished from other members of his profes-
sion by the fact that he uses no switch at all, but only a piece of
heavy copper wire. When J. M. Jones, a wealthy cattleman of
the neighborhood, needed a well he called in Fred Goudy to
witch the land. "The water-witch used a copper rod," said the
Kansas City Times (Oct. 13, 1936), "and locating a desirable
spot, paused above it while the divining rod 'nodded' thirty-nine
times." The idea is, I take it, that the underground stream lay
thirty-nine feet below the surface.
There used to be a man in Christian county, Missouri, who
enjoyed considerable success as a water witch and attributed
88 WATER WITCHES
his power to the fact that he always wore rubber boots and
worked in dry weather besides. "You got to be insulated from
the ground," said he. This gentleman was quoted as saying that
anybody could witch water if he were properly insulated and
had sense enough to hold the stick correctly. "There's no magic
about it, and no superstition," he said. "There's something in
running water that pulls the stick. It must be electricity, or
maybe magnetism."
Some people say that the witch stick can also be used for
locating coal, gas, and oil, but I have never heard of this being
successfully practiced in the Ozark country. Old W. H. Johnson
always claimed that the artesian well which supplies the village
of Hollister, Missouri, was drilled by one Dr. Diemar, upon
information furnished by an "oil witch" who professed to feel
"a peculiar wiggling in the fingers" when he approached oil-
bearing sand. The well has produced a lot of excellent water,
but never a drop of oil.
Many hillfolk are interested in the search for lost mines and
buried treasure, and some of these people have tried to use the
witch stick in their quests. If a man is looking for buried gold,
he fastens a gold ring to the end of his stick ; if it is silver that
he expects to find, he splits the end of the wand and inserts a
silver coin. Rayburn says that to locate mixed ores one uses
two different metals usually a dime and a penny. 2 Witch sticks
thus equipped for treasure hunting are sometimes called "doo-
dlebugs," but I don't know if this is an old backwoods term or
a recent importation. I have seen perhaps a dozen doodlebugs
in operation but have yet to hear of any treasure being found
by the doodlebuggers in the Ozarks. It is said that a switch
loaded with metal will not react to water, or to any other sub-
stance save the particular metal which is attached to the stick.
I am told that there are a few witch wigglers in the Ozarks
who have commercialized this sort of thing, and make their
living by the manufacture and sale of doodlebugs. There are
2 Ozark Country, p. 128.
WATER WITCHES 89
others who offer to locate treasure at so much per diem, or even
to work on a percentage basis in some cases. There used to be
a man near Steelville, Missouri, who professed to locate mineral
deposits at a flat rate of five dollars per deposit. He even claimed
that he could tell, by the behavior of his witch stick, whether the
alleged deposit was a vein of the mineral, or a mere pocket.
When I lived in McDonald county, Missouri, I had occasion
to drill a well near my cabin. A local water witch came out to
witch the land for me, and he indicated a spot high up on the
hillside, in a most inconvenient place. "Dig there," said he,
"and you'll get a good strong flow at sixty-five feet." It was a
very unhandy place for the well, and I asked the man to check
on a little clearing just behind the cabin. He picked up his
witch stick again and tested every foot of the ground about the
house, without any result. "Dry as a bone," he decided. So I
reluctantly drove the driller's stake in the designated spot on
the hillside.
But when the well-drilling outfit came out from the nearby
town of Anderson, I had a talk with the boss driller. His name
was Lee Cantrell, and he was a man of very decided opinions
on all matters pertaining to his craft. Cantrell said that he
had been drilling wells for many years, and that water witching
was all damned foolishness. "If I was in your place," said he, "I
wouldn't pay no mind to this witch business. I'd just drill that
there well wherever I wanted it."
This advice seemed so eminently sane and sensible that I
agreed at once and blushed to think that I should have even for
a moment considered any other course. And so we disregarded
the location stake on the hillside and set up the drill rig in the
little clearing behind the house. At a depth of fifty-two feet we
struck a great underground river, "clear as crystal an' cold as
ice," as Cantrell assured me. That well is still in use, and there
is no better drinking water in southwest Missouri.
The witch wiggler could hardly believe that we had really
found water in the place he said was dry as a bone. He came
90 WATER WITCHES
out with a plumb line and sounded the well long before we could
get a pump in. He tasted the water, too, and shook his head as
if greatly puzzled. That water witch and I were good friends.
We got drunk together sometimes and discussed our common
prejudices and detestations freely enough. But I do not recall
that he ever mentioned water witching in my presence again.
Charles J. Finger, in a book entitled Ozark Fantasia, re-
counts his experience with a water witch near Fayetteville,
Arkansas. 3 The chief difference between Finger's experience and
my own is that the stick turned in his hands. I have met Mr.
Finger, and he impressed me as a very practical sort of man,
with no place in his mind for any kind of backwoods supersti-
tion. He could not believe in any such hocus-pocus, even though
he did hold the witch stick himself. And so he ends his disserta-
tion thus : "My notion, without any ingenious assumptions, is
that there is water almost anywhere ; that the waterfmders act
in good faith ; and that the dipping of the stick is the result of
unconscious fatigue." But even Finger, evidently, is not quite
satisfied with this explanation, for he qualifies his statement
with the final sentence: "This, of course, fails to account for
certain coincidences."
It is surprising how many intelligent people do believe in
this sort of thing. In 1931 I published a book about the Ozarks,
in which there was some mention of witch wigglers. Several
months later, in the New York Sun I saw a review of my book
by Burton Rascoe, eminent literary critic. Rascoe resented my
referring to this method of finding water as a backwoods super-
stition.
I believe in water-witches [wrote Mr. Rascoe]. When my father
bought a tract of land down in Seminole county, Okla., in 1911, there
was no drinking water on the place except that to be had from the
streams. My father engaged a water-witch, whose fee was $25 a
lot of money in that part of the country in those days. The water-
witch wandered about and took in the topography of the farm pretty
Pages 135-130,
WATER WITCHES 91
thoroughly. He cut himself a forked willow switch and carried it
along in front of him until the end of it bent toward the earth. Then,
having found the underground stream, he followed it along to where
he knew it was widest and deepest. This happened to be in a most
unlikely looking place, on top of a hill. The old gentleman told my
father that if he dug forty-five feet into the ground at that spot he
would find a plentiful and continuous supply of excellent water. The
well that was sunk there went just forty-five feet into the ground.
To this day that well supplies an abundance of fine water, even in
periods of prolonged drought. 4
Since that time I have received many letters on the subject,
and nearly all of them took me to task for my skepticism re-
garding the claims of water witches. But it seems to me that
there is no scientific basis for a belief in water witching. Sys-
tematic records show that where several witch wigglers are
called to work on the same plot of ground, there is no consist-
ency in tbe results their drill stakes are scattered from one
end of the field to the other. It appears that hundreds of dry
wells have been drilled in places where the water witches were
sure of finding water in abundance. Witch wigglers have been
kidded into walking directly over great underground torrents
in unlikely places, even water mains and reservoirs, and their
witch sticks didn't move at all.
The scientific conclusion is summarized by Dr. O. E. Meinzer,
of the United States Geological Survey, who expressed himself
as follows : "It is difficult to see how, for practical purposes, the
water-witch theory could be more thoroughly discredited. To
all inquiries the United States Geological Survey therefore gives
the advice not to expend any money for the services of any water-
witch, or for the use or purchase of any machine or instrument
devised for locating underground water or minerals."
* New York Sun, Oct. 30, 1931.
6. Mountain Medicine
Regular physicians are not very num-
erous in the Ozarks, and a great many
"chills-an'-f ever doctors" are practicing
illegally. Most of these are men who had a year or two of train-
ing at some Southern medical college, but others have just
"picked up doctorin' " by assisting some old physician whose
practice they have inherited. The "chills-an'-fever doctors"
save the overworked M.D. many a long night ride and are fre-
quently protected and advised by the medical profession. The
average hillman, of course, knows nothing of this distinction
between qualified and unqualified physicians. He calls 'em all
"Doc" and lets it go at that.
Besides the regular and irregular physicians, who live mostly
in the villages, the backwoods country swarms with "yarb
doctors" and "rubbin* doctors" and "nature doctors" who 'have
never studied medicine at all. Some of these nature doctors
are women, others are preachers who do a little doctorin' on
the side, and many of them are unable to read or write. They
rely mainly upon herbs, barks, roots, and the like. For internal
medication these substances are steeped in hot water, and
"horse doses" of the resulting teas are administered at frequent
intervals. In some cases the tea is boiled down to a thick paste
called ooze, or mixed with strained honey to make a syrup. The
yarb doctors are great believers in poultices, which are applied
both hot and cold for all sorts of ailments. Doubtless some of
these homely remedies have real value and may be listed in the
Pharmacopoeia for all I know. The hillfolk, however, seem to
feel that the efficacy of a treatment varies directly with its
MOUNTAIN MEDICINE 93
unpleasantness ; bitter tea is always best, and the more a
poultice hurts the better they like it.
"God Almighty never put us here without a remedy for every
ailment," said old Jimmy Van Zandt of Kirbyville, Missouri.
"Out in the woods there's plants that will cure all kinds of sick-
ness, and all we got to do is hunt for 'em."
Mullein-flower tea is supposed to be good for colds, sore
throat, flu, and even pneumonia. A tea made of sumac berries
is favored for coughs and sore throat. Strong cider vinegar,
with salt and pepper added, is used as a gargle. Cranesbill
(Geranium maculatum) is brewed into a fine astringent medi-
cine for sore throats. Pine needles, steeped in water over night
and boiled down with sorghum, make another popular cough
remedy, but a tea made of linn or basswood flowers is better for
a cold in the head. Mrs. C. P. Mahnkey, Mincy, Missouri, says
that she has broken up many a bad cold with "red-pepper tea,
simmered in butter and water, and made pretty sticky with
sugar."
Horehound is one of the best cold remedies. Just take a pan-
ful of horehound leaves, add water, and keep warm on the back
of the stove for several days. Then pour off the liquid and con-
centrate it further by boiling. This is the standard cough
medicine of the Ozarks, but it's pretty bitter. Many people
think that horehound tea should be mixed with wild honey
the blacker the honey the more effective the syrup. Some young
folk like it better if the mother adds a lot of sugar to make
horehound candy, which is poured out on a buttered platter and
allowed to harden, then broken into pieces and distributed
among the children.
Many Ozark youngsters are dosed with large quantities of
skunk oil for throat ailments, particularly croup. This stuff is
rendered from the fat of skunks trapped in the winter a strong
stinking mess which makes many children vomit. There are tales
also of yarb doctors who use liniments made of rattlesnake oil,
but I have never seen any of this myself. Croup is treated ex-
94 MOUNTAIN MEDICINE
ternally by a poultice of lard and fried onions, applied very hot.
Charley Cummins, veteran newspaperman of Springfield,
Missouri, always called a severe cold a tissic that's his own
spelling. He said the only way to cure such a cold was to apply
a poultice of lard, camphor, turpentine, and fried onions.
Dr. W. O. Cralle, of Springfield, Missouri, writes me that
some backwoods friends of his have used a tea of onions and
wild lobelia with great success, in cases of "pneumony fever."
Some old settlers make poultices of chicken manure mixed with
lard as a treatment for pneumonia ; it is said that the dung of
black chickens is best. A hot poultice of hopvine cones and
leaves is a famous remedy for pneumonia ; I have seen this used
hour after hour, fresh poultices always in the making, and a
new one applied every fifteen minutes.
A tea made from the roots of butterfly weed (Asclepias), also
known as pleurisy root, is used for "lung trouble," which usu-
ally means the late stages of tuberculosis. Some hillfolk believe
that drinking fresh warm blood is the best treatment for "lung
trouble"; I knew an elderly couple who sold their farm and
moved to a city so that their consumptive daughter could get
fresh blood from a slaughterhouse every day. One old man said
that he had kept his family free of disease by putting ground
dandelion root into their coffee, but many hillfolk use dandelion
root as a coffee substitute or adulterant with no thought of
tuberculosis.
A pinch of gunpowder, washed down with a glass of warm
water or sour milk, was regarded as a sure cure for diphtheria
in the Ozark country, long before we ever heard of vaccines or
antitoxin.
A family at Lamar, Missouri, claims to cure hay fever by
feeding the patient honey made from Spanish needles. Sumac
leaves are supposed to cure asthma and hay fever ; some people
make a sumac tea, others dry the leaves and smoke them in a
pipe. Jimson-weed (Datura) is used in treating bronchial
troubles and asthma. Wild plum bark, scraped down, is a
MOUNTAIN MEDICINE 95
specific for asthma; most yarb doctors just make a strong tea
with a little sweetening, but some add a great deal of sugar or
molasses and make a regular syrup of it.
In scraping bark from a tree or shrub, the direction in which
it is cut may make a vast difference in its effect as medicine.
Peach-tree bark, for example, if the tree is shaved upward, is
supposed to prevent vomiting, or to stop a diarrhea. But if the
bark is scraped downward, the tea made from it is regarded as
a violent purgative. In general, the old-timers say that if the
pain is in the lower part- of the body, it is best to scrape the
bark downward, to drive the disease into the legs and out at the
toes. If the bark in such a case were stripped upward, it might
force the pizen up into the patient's heart, lungs, or head, and
kill him instantly.
The root of the yellow puccoon or golden-seal is fine for all
sorts of stomach and intestinal troubles. If a hillman "gets to
pukin' an* caint keep no thin' on his stummick," he just drinks
a little yellow puccoon tea, or eats a bit of the fresh root every
day. Some people carry a piece of this root in their pockets and
chew it like tobacco or chewing gum.
The inner lining of a chicken's gizzard, chopped fine and
made into a tea, is used in cases of dyspepsia, stomach cramps,
colitis, and so on. They tell me that this stuff "settles the
stummick" quicker than anything found in the drugstore.
Rattlesnake weed (Poly gala senega) is good for bellyache,
flatulence, and intestinal pains ; the natives make a strong tea
from the dried root and drink it hot.
Many hillfolk chew angelica root, which is another famous
stomach remedy, supposed to cure everything from gastric
ulcers to appendicitis ; six-year-old Dorothy Farris died near
Hartville, Missouri, in 1938, because she mistook poisonous
water hemlock (Conium) for the aromatic angelica, which her
mother had told her to gather and eat every day.
Red-pepper tea, catnip tea, horsemint (Monarda) tea all
of these are mightily cried up as remedies for stomach cramps
96 MOUNTAIN MEDICINE
or bellyache. Strong onion tea without salt, taken in small doses
every fifteen minutes, is said to be a sure cure for "wind-on-the-
stummick." Dr. W. O. Cralle, Springfield, Missouri, tells me
that a decoction of "milk pursley" is highly recommended in
all sorts of stomach and bowel trouble. Wild ginger (Asarum)
and Indian turnip (Arisaema triphyllum) are also good for
digestive difficulties ; the root of the latter can't be eaten in its
natural state, but they say that it loses its bite when boiled.
Snakeroot (Aristochia serpentaria) is often made into a tea and
substituted for the more drastic Indian turnip.
Mrs. C. P. Mahnkey, Mincy, Missouri, tells of a neighbor
who "burned a saucer of whiskey, the blue flame toasting a
rancid bacon rind, the juice dripping down into the saucer."
When the flame went out, this "witchified potion" was given to
a man with severe stomach pains. He made a rapid recovery,
too.
Siippery-elm bark, boiled down to a thick ooze, is a common
remedy for all sorts of digestive troubles particularly such as
are caused by excessive use of alcoholic liquors. The gelatinous
bark is widely used also as a capsule for quinine, or any other
medicine that has an unpleasant taste. Some yarb doctors treat
typhoid by administering large doses of slippery-elm ooze,
forbidding the patient to eat any solid food, and finally build-
ing up a great smudge of corncobs under the bed.
Slippery-elm bark is sometimes given in cases of poisoning,
to produce vomiting, and seems very effective. A thick ooze of
peach-tree leaves is another valuable emetic, according to
Mr. Lewis Kelley, of Cyclone, Missouri. So is a tea made of
puke root (Gillenia stipulata), also known as wild ipecac. Some
yarb doctors get the same result by taking a living fly, pref-
erably a green stable fly, and washing it down the patient's
throat in a cup of coffee or a glass of warm milk.
The yarb doctors are familiar with many purgatives or
"loosenin* weeds." One of the most violent and griping is the
root of the May apple or mandrake, made into a thick tea or
MOUNTAIN MEDICINE 97
ooze. The so-called black physic (Veronica virginica) is another
root with a strong cathartic action. The inner bark of the white
walnut or butternut is also a popular laxative ; most people
boil this down to a thick syrupy mess, then thicken it with flour
and roll it into pills, which are allowed to dry with a little sugar
on the outside. Flaxseed is also highly recommended for chronic
constipation.
Near Walnut Shade, Missouri, a man told me that the early
settlers didn't bother much with vegetable purgatives, as they
all preferred to take Epsom salts. When I asked where the pi-
oneers obtained Epsom salts, he said that there was a whole
mountain of it down the road. At the time it did not occur to
me that the man was in earnest, but I learned later that there
is a high ridge nearby called Salts Bluff. I went to this place
and saw for myself the white powdery substance on the rocks
under some overhanging ledges. I tasted the stuff, and it is like
Glauber's or horse salts rather than Epsom. But it is evidently
cathartic in its action, and there is no doubt that the early
settlers did gather this material and use it as medicine.
Ragweed tea, made by steeping the fresh leaves in cold
water, is a famous cure for diarrhea what the hillfolk call
flux. An old woman at Pineville, Missouri, talked me into trying
this once, and it worked like magic in my case. Smartweed (the
kind with red stems) is used in the same way, except that in
this case the tea is made with hot water instead of cold. The
root of a plant called cranesbill (Geranium maculatum) is also a
popular "flux stopper." A tea of white-oak bark is good for
diarrhea too, and in small frequent doses is indicated in chronic
indigestion or colitis.
Backwoods babies seem particularly subject to an intestinal
disorder known as "summer complaint." Many children die of
this ailment, and the only sure cure is a tea made from the roots
of the wild artichoke. A young couple in Tulsa, Oklahoma,
came near losing their baby, and the city doctors didn't seem
to do the child any good. The father went out and searched
98 MOUNTAIN MEDICINE
the country around Tulsa but could not find any wild artichoke.
Finally he got into his car and drove back to his old home in
Taney county, Missouri, where he obtained a good supply of
artichoke roots. When he got back to Tulsa the doctors thought
the baby was dying, but the artichoke tea brought relief within
a few hours, and a week later the child was as well as ever. This
is the story, anyhow, and there are many old-timers around
Forsyth, Missouri, who believe it.
Where no artichoke is obtainable, some folks treat summer
complaint with a tea made by mashing up sow bugs and steeping
them in hot water; some mountain healers give large doses of
this mess to sick babies. I have seen this tried, and the child
recovered in spite of the sow bugs.
A young girl near Forsyth, Missouri, used to take large
quantities of tea made by boiling toasted egg shells in water,
but I was unable to find out what was the matter with her, or
what effect this "egg-shell tea" was expected to produce. Chil-
dren are sometimes dosed with chamber lye which means urine
mixed with sweet oil; it is said that this is a sure cure for
stomach cramps.
When an Ozark child has colic, the mother squeezes a little
of her own milk into a teacup. Then she takes a reed pipestem
and blows clouds of tobacco smoke into the cup, so that it
bubbles up through the milk. When the baby drinks this nico-
tinized milk it becomes quiet at once and soon falls asleep. Other
people treat a "colicky" infant simply by blowing tobacco
smoke up under its clothes ; I have seen this done several times,
and it really did seem to relieve the pain or at least to distract
the child's attention for the moment.
Tobacco is used in other ways by the yarb doctors and
granny-women. I have seen severe abdominal pain, later diag-
nosed as appendicitis and cured by surgery, apparently relieved
at once with a poultice of tobacco leaves soaked in hot water.
The tobacco poultice is very generally used for cuts, stings,
bites, bruises, and even bullet wounds. A poultice of tobacco
MOUNTAIN MEDICINE 99
leaves in cold water is often applied to "draw the pizen" out of
a boil or a risin'. Some people think such a poultice is more
effective if fresh mullein leaves are bound on outside the tobacco.
For rectal troubles the yarb doctor favors a salve made by
boiling bittersweet berries in lard. Sometimes, however, the
patient is merely directed to sew a piece of sheep's intestine to
the tail of his shirt. Charley Cummins, old-time newspaper re-
porter of Springfield, Missouri, always claimed that he could
make an "almost infallible pile cure" out of mullein leaves, but
he would never give me any details of the treatment. Several
herbalists have told me of the "balm-o'-gilly" tree, doubtless
identical with the Balm of Gilead, said to be a kind of poplar;
they cook the waxy buds of this tree with tallow, and the result-
ing salve is used in treating burns and abrasions as well as
hemorrhoids.
There are several outlandish semimagical methods of curing
piles, which involve some hocus-pocus with urine. The following
story is vouched for by a sober and respectable business woman
in Mountain Grove, Missouri, who would never have believed
such a tale had she not known all the parties involved and seen
the thing for herself :
An old woman on relief at Mountain Grove, Mo., kept asking for
a suit of brand-new underwear. Finally a member of the Ladies' Aid
bought it for her. The old woman did not wear the suit, but sent it,
with a dollar bill attached, to one of her neighbors; she asked the
neighbor to wear it ten days, then send it back to her unwashed, and
she would wear it for three days this would cure her piles, she said.
The neighbor wanted to humor the old woman, so she sent back
the dollar and put on the union suit. A few days later the old woman
wrote again, saying that she hated to tell the whole story at first, but
that the cure demanded something more. After wearing the suit ten
days, the neighbor was to take it off and urinate on it, wetting it all
over, and then drying it in the sun without washing. Next, the old
woman would wear it for three days, then wash it and return it to
the neighbor, as the whole process had to be gone through with again.
The neighbor was kind of discouraged by this time, and sent the
underwear back to the old woman, with a note saying that she did not
100 MOUNTAIN MEDICINE
believe in superstitions, and recommending a certain patent medicine
for piles.
It is not stated what happened after that, but at last reports
the old woman still had her hemorrhoids.
Some years ago a prominent Ozark farmer suffered from
hiccoughs, which continued for many days, so that his life was
endangered. One yarb doctor said that if the man would just
grind up some white beans, mix the resulting powder with vine-
gar, and take a teaspoonful every thirty minutes, he would
stop hiccoughing within twenty-four hours this was tried
without any results. Other local healers contended that a big
dose of dill tea, or tea made of the inner lining of a chicken
gizzard, would cure hiccoughs almost immediately. An old
woman from Rocky Comfort, Missouri, wrote the man's doctor
suggesting that he "drench" the patient with sweet milk and
black-pepper tea. A poultice of raw potatoes, fastened tightly
across the abdomen, was also highly recommended. An amateur
herbalist at Pineville, Missouri, told me that a tonic mixture
of whiskey, tansy, and ragweed leaves was indicated in all such
cases ; "I take it every day myself," said he, "an* it agrees with
me fine. I aint had the hiccoughs but once in fourteen year I"
Many hillfolk treat sprains by tying on rags soaked in hot
vinegar to which salt has been added. Others put mullein leaves
in the vinegar instead of salt. A poultice of red clay moistened
into a paste with vinegar is also common. Another application
for sprains is a hot mixture of cornmeal and buttermilk, with
a little bran stirred into it. A poultice made by boiling down
the inner bark of black oak, stiffened with bran or sawdust, is
said to reduce the swelling of sprains and bruises. Also recom-
mended are the leaves of horse balm (Collinsonia canadensis) ,
widely used to poultice bruises and even open wounds.
A poultice made of the root bark of polecat weed (a little
aromatic bush with yellow flowers) chopped fine and boiled in
salt water is very good for wounds and bruises. Some folk seem
to think that a poultice of mullein leaves simmered in vinegar
MOUNTAIN MEDICINE 101
is helpful in almost any sort of painful condition. I have seen
such a poultice applied to a wound made by a charge of bird
shot ; it not only eases pain, I was told, but "loosens up the shot"
so that the doctor can easily extract the pellets.
A weed called square stalk, apparently a kind of figwort, is
used in making poultices to reduce swelling. At the same time,
it is supposed to "bring a risin' to a head." A mixture of soft
soap and brown sugar seems to get the same results. Some peo-
ple cure boils by soaking a piece of snake skin in vinegar
and tying it on the affected part. Sour-dock leaves are also used
to bind up boils or carbuncles. Fresh possum-grape leaves are
tied on open sores, or on boils which have come to a head.
Dr. W. O. Cralle, Springfield, Missouri, tells me that Aunt
Mary Johnson, of Theodosia, Missouri, treats "proud flesh"
or "blood poison" with a poultice of prickly pear, beets, and
sweet milk cooked together and applied as hot as the patient
can bear it. Old leg sores, and the condition called milk-leg, are
said to be relieved by binding "the pup bag of a bitch dog" on
the affected part and wearing it for seven days. A wound made
by a rusty nail is best treated by fastening a very old corroded
penny over the puncture it is believed that the "green moss"
on the copper will draw out the poison and prevent tetanus.
Another method is to burn woolen rags in a copper kettle and
hold the injured member in the thick smoke for several minutes.
Chimney soot, thoroughly mixed with molasses, is good for
cuts and open wounds. Spider webs are used for this purpose,
too, and are said to stop bleeding at once. Best of all is the dry
dust from the fungi called puffballs, especially the big yellow
kind known as the Devil's snuffbox. Golden-seal root, ground
into a fine dry powder and dusted on an open wound or sore,
seems to cure it up about as well as anything. The pain of a
bee sting is relieved by applying the crushed leaves of three
plants any three will do, just so they are of different species
to the painful area.
The hillfolk use kerosene or coal oil both externally and in-
102 MOUNTAIN MEDICINE
ternally, for many minor ailments and injuries. Some of them
claim Biblical authority for this treatment in the passage:
"Nothing but the oil of the earth will cure ye in the latter days,"
but I have not been able to locate this in the Bible, so far. I
have seen snake bite treated by sticking the swollen leg into a
bucket of kerosene ; if the snake was really poisonous, it is said
that the "pizen" forms a greenish scum on the top of the oil ;
many of those present claimed to see the green venom very
distinctly, but I saw nothing but the iridescent surface color
of the kerosene. A poultice of soft soap mixed with salt is
sometimes used for snake bites and is believed to draw out the
poison if it is applied in time. Mrs. C. P. Mahnkey, of Taney
county, Missouri, recommends "a bit of real snake-weed, boiled
in sweet milk," but it is a rare plant, and I have not been able
to find a specimen. "The leaves are slender, almost like blades
of corn," she writes, "but four corne out of the stalk, all exactly
opposite each other, and at the top is a little white blossom."
For kidney and bladder trouble, the yarb doctor usually
burns the dried blood of a rabbit and makes a tea by boiling the
ashes in water and decanting off the liquid. Gravelroot (Eupa-
torium) is good too it is boiled down to a strong tea, and then
diluted with water as taken. A tea brewed from parsley is also
a popular kidney medicine. The root of sevenbark (Hydrangea
arborescens) is a remedy for scanty or difficult urination, as
is the shrub known as ninebark, which looks very much like the
common white spiraea seen in flower gardens.
Corn-silk tea, made by steeping corn silks in very hot water,
is said to cure bed wetting in children. Some people think that
sumac-berry tea is better, however. Similar claims are made for
a strong decoction of finely chopped watermelon seeds. Another
sure cure for bed wetting is to feed the child a pancake with
bedbugs cooked into it; I saw this tried once and noted that
the patient was not told about the bugs until several hours after
he had eaten the pancake. Miss Betrenia Watt, who taught the
village school at Preston, in Hickory county, Missouri, tells
MOUNTAIN MEDICINE 103
me that the old-timers use seven bedbugs to each pancake, but
the folks in my neighborhood didn't bother to count the
"cheenches."
I remember a young woman near Pineville, Missouri, who was
very ill indeed. The local M.D. said that she had Bright's disease
and held little hope for her recovery. One of this woman's male
relatives searched the hills for days and finally dug up a root
which seemed to do her more good than any of the doctor's
prescriptions. She was still alive several years later, apparently
much improved in health. I interviewed the man who found the
magic root. He boasted that he had cured the woman "after all
the doctors done give her up" but refused to tell me the name of
the root that did the business. A yarb doctor who saw the stuff,
however, told me that it looked to him like yellow-root, by which
he meant golden-seal (Hydrastis).
Plenty of sexual intercourse is regarded as a sure cure for
bladder and kidney ailments in women. It is often said of a
widow who remarries : "Well, I guess Lizzie has throwed away
her gravel medicine." Perhaps this is somehow related to the
hillman's habit of saying, as a sort of toast when he takes a
drink of whiskey : "Well, this is for my wife's kidneys !" I have
heard this remark many times, in different parts of the Ozark
country, but am not certain just what is meant by it.
The yarb doctor is brother to the witch and close cousin to
the preacher, and not infrequently mixes a little religious hokum
with his teas and plasters. People who visited Hollister, Mis-
souri, in the spring of 1934 will not soon forget the "prayin'
corn doctor," a bewhiskered old herbalist who specialized in
corns and bunions and prayed loudly over his remedies. As late
as 1940 there was one of these fellows in Taney county, Mis-
souri, a long-haired chap with beaded moccasins and a deerskin
vest. He carried many little bags of dried herbs, each marked
with a mysterious sign supposed to be Cherokee picture writing.
This medicine man treated all ailments and agreed to cure any-
thing for six dollars in cash. He asked every patient "You be-
104 MOUNTAIN MEDICINE
lieve in God, don't you?" and they all answered that they did.
Muttering strange words as he opened each little sack of medi-
cine, he put several kinds of dried leaves into a pint of water
for each patient. The leaves were so finely divided that they
were not easily identified, but I tasted the tea made from them,
and I think it was mostly senna and gentian.
A woman in McDonald county, Missouri, had some sort of
kidney trouble her body was enormously swollen. The M.D.
said there was no hope for her, but the family called in an
illiterate healer from the backwoods. This yarb doctor glanced
at the patient and said that he could reduce the swelling in a
few minutes, but this might endanger the patient's life, so he
had best do the job gradually. He muttered some gibberish and
applied a green poultice of his own making. He told me privately
that this poultice was made of turnip tops, which he had
"blessed with the power of Christ Jesus." The woman died two
or three days later. "You orter have called me sooner," said the
yarb doctor.
Perhaps the most famous yarb doctor ever known in the
Ozarks was Omar Palmer, who lived in the village of Hurley,
Missouri. I went to see Palmer once, and the cars in fropt of
his office sported tags from five different states. He had a larger
practice, and made more money, than any of the licensed M.D.'S
in the neighborhood. The Missouri State Board of Health had
him arrested once for practicing medicine without a license, but
at the last moment his patients refused to testify. The yarb
doctor walked out of court a free man and was greeted with loud
cheers from the assembled yokelry. Somebody even shot off some
firecrackers, ordinarily reserved for Christmas and the Fourth
of July. Palmer kept five or six men and women busy, collecting
roots and herbs in the woods near Hurley. He sold his various
teas in pint bottles. Unwilling to use alcohol to preserve the
stuff, Palmer could not prevent its spoiling in a few days, so
that the customer had to return to Hurley for another bottle.
Sassafras tea, made from the bark of sassafras roots in the
MOUNTAIN MEDICINE 105
spring, is supposed to thin or purify the blood. It has the color
of tawny port, and a very fine flavor though too much boiling
makes it bitter. Some people put small quantities of May apple,
wild cherry, and goldenseal into their sassafras tea, but most
of the old folks take it neat. Sassafras is used not only in the
backwoods but more or less all over the country. I have seen
men selling little bundles of sassafras roots in the streets of
Kansas City, St. Louis, Springfield, and Joplin, Missouri, and
also in Fort Smith and Little Rock, Arkansas. The old-timers
use only the fresh red roots the smaller and redder the better.
The fellows who sell the stuff split larger whitish roots up to
look like young ones, but the big roots don't make the best tea.
The drugstores sell dried sassafras bark the year round,
and some people buy this stuff in the winter, but the hillfolk
claim that only the fresh roots have any value as medicine.
Many of them say that sassafras is no good until Groundhog
Day February 14.
Many Ozark people make a tea from the bark of the spice-
bush (Benzoin aestivale) in March and April. They drink this
just as they do sassafras tea and regard it as a tonic and blood
thinner. It tastes quite as good as sassafras, I think. Some old
folks say that in pioneer days the spicebush was used to season
game it softened the wild taste of venison and bear meat.
Spicebush twigs are still used as a mat beneath a possum, when
the Ozark housewife bakes the animal in a covered pan or a
Dutch oven.
Choctaw-root or dogbane (Apocynum) is also made into a
tea, mildly laxative, which is said to "thin the blood an' tone
up the system." I have never tasted this but have met men who
say that it is better than either sassafras or spicebush. Some
yarb doctors fortify their choctaw-root with wild-cherry bark
and "anvil dust," whatever that may be.
A strong tea of red-clover blossoms is highly regarded in
some quarters as a blood purifier and general tonic. It is used
in the treatment of whooping cough, too, but if the whooping
106 MOUNTAIN MEDICINE
cough is really bad nothing will help it but mare's milk. Many
a father has been routed out in the night to ride to some farm
where a mare has lately foaled.
Bloodroot or red puccoon (Sanguinaria) is also supposed
to be a great blood remedy, apparently because it has blood-
red sap. By the same token a leaf shaped like a kidney, or a liver,
or an ovary, or what not is supposed to designate a remedy for
disorders of the organ which it resembles. The yarb doctors are
all familiar with this principle, but they don't seem to take it
very seriously or follow it consistently.
Some hillfolk in southern Missouri gather the roots of the
big purple coneflower (Brauneria) and brew a tea which is
given to sick persons apparently regardless of what ails them.
I know a man who was confined to his bed with a broken leg,
and the doctor was no sooner out of sight than the womenfolks
began to dose the patient with this "niggerhead" tea. "It made
him sweat wonderful," an old woman told me later, "an' sweatin's
good for a big man layin' in bed that-a-way !"
Many of the old-time druggists make up bitters by putting
wild cherries, together with the inner bark of the wild-cherry
tree, into whiskey. This is a fine spring tonic, and some prefer
it to sassafras tea. It is good for almost any ailment, in a pinch,
and even families who are notoriously dry keep a quart of bitters
in case of sudden sickness. A mixture of whiskey and rock candy
is popular too but is not so highly recommended as the famous
wild-cherry bitters.
Children in Arkansas are sometimes encouraged to chew the
gummy resin melted out of pine wood before the fireplace; I
have seen children chewing this stuff by the hour, just as city
children chew gum. The parents think that the turpentine in
this resin keeps the children free of worms. A tea made from
peach leaves is also a common remedy for worms, while some
favor a mess made by stewing vermifuge seeds in molasses.
Horsemint tea is supposed to be a sure cure for rectal worms
MOUNTAIN MEDICINE 107
in children. A decoction of pumpkin seeds is used to expel tape-
worms, and it seems to be effective, too.
Boneset tea is a favorite remedy for chills, fever, and ague.
A tea made of elderberry roots is good, too. Some people have
great confidence in blade-fodder tea, especially if the fodder
has been kept in a dry place. Seneca-root or rattlesnake weed
(Senega) is said to make a mighty fine chills-and-fever medi-
cine. The unfermerited juice of the little wild possum grapes
is supposed to cure malaria. Uncle Jack Short of Galena, Mis-
souri, says that he used tt> drink gallons of peach-bark tea
every fall for his "ager" ; also a tea made by boiling sheep
manure, with a little spicewood added to kill the unpleasant
taste. Fanny D. Bergen observes that "in central Missouri one
is recommended to take for ague a whole pepper-corn every
morning for seven consecutive mornings." x The plant known
as fever-root (Corallorhiza odontorhiza) is also used to reduce
fevers and is a mild sedative as well. A gentleman in Cyclone,
Missouri, tells me that his family made a "chill remedy" that
was in great demand ; the exact formula was kept secret, he
says, but the main ingredient was crushed burdock seeds.
A good strong tea of saffron, taken often and in large doses,
is said to be a sure cure for the "yaller janders." Another
jaundice remedy is made by cooking fishworms in lard and
rolling the result into big evil-smelling pills.
Nanny tea, consisting of sheep manure and hot water, with a
little sugar, is a very powerful medicine for measles ; it is be-
lieved to make the patient "break out" at once, which the yarb
doctors say is desirable. Spicewood tea, made by boiling the
tender green twigs of the spicewood or feverbush (Benzoin
aestivale), is another famous remedy for measles.
Mrs. Coral Almy Wilson, of Zinc, Arkansas, tells me that
her neighbors treat rheumatism with an infusion of wahoo
(Euonymus) bark. In other parts of the Ozarks the yarb doc-
i Journal of American Folklore, V (1892), 21.
108 MOUNTAIN MEDICINE
tors administer pokeroot (Phytolacca) tea for rheumatism,
while people in eastern Oklahoma seem to think that celery
leaves are about as good as anything. Mrs. May Kennedy
McCord, Springfield, Missouri, claims that a mixture of sulphur
and homemade sorghum molasses does cure rheumatism, no mat-
ter what the doctors say. The so-called rheumatiz root (Dio-
scorea) is much favored in some sections. A man near Marion-
ville, Missouri, used to eat pokeberries, generally supposed to
be poisonous, in the belief that they might help his rheumatic
joints. A tea made by boiling cockleburs in water is another
remedy for rheumatism.
Water drunk from a gourd is somehow cleansed of all im-
purities, according to the old-timers, and is regarded by some
as a specific for rheumatism. I knew a lawyer in Pineville, Mis-
souri, who always kept a gourd in his office, hidden behind the
water cooler; he said that a man who was inclined to be rheu-
matic should not drink from cups or glasses.
Stiff joints are treated with a grease made by hanging a
bottle of dead fishworms up in the sun a horrible stinking mess
it is, too. The grease from skunks or civet cats, mixed with
peppermint leaves, is highly praised by some hillfolk as a
lubricant for rheumatic joints. It is said that the fat of a male
wildcat is best of all. Big black ants are dried and powdered
and mixed with lard ; this is rubbed on the legs of babies who
are slow in learning to walk, or who seem weak in the legs.
Sometimes a severe pain in the ear is relieved with a vinegar
poultice just soak a piece of light-bread in hot vinegar and
hold it against the ear until it cools. Some yarb doctors treat
earache simply by blowing tobacco smoke into the ear; if this
doesn't give relief, they blow the smoke into a cup of warm
water with a reed or pipestem and put a few drops of this
smoke water into the ear at intervals. Others prefer to pour
sweet oil, or skunk oil, or goose grease strained through silk
into their ears. Some use human urine in the same way, although
it is claimed that mule's urine is better. An infusion of sheep
MOUNTAIN MEDICINE 109
manure, called nanny tea or sheep-dumplin' tea, is also much in
favor as a remedy for earache. If the pain is caused by a bug
getting into the ear, however, one has only to squirt water into
the other ear, and the insect will be washed out immediately.
Fresh urine is the best lotion for chapped hands, sore feet,
and chilblains. I once knew a lady south of Joplin, Missouri,
who thought that the practice of rubbing urine on one's feet
was disgusting; she contended that a nice salve made of hog
bristles cut very fine and mixed with skunk oil was more effica-
cious, anyhow.
A mess of peach roots, ground up and mixed with lard, is said
to cure the seven-year itch. Some people prefer a salve made of
hopvine leaves. Bloodroot or red puccoon, pounded up fine and
steeped in vinegar, is another very popular itch medicine. Some
claim to cure the itch by taking sulphur and molasses internally,
but most yarb doctors scoff at this. Others treat itch with a
paste made of gunpowder and wood ashes mixed with sweet
cream, applied at frequent intervals. In Pineville, Missouri, my
old neighbors asked the druggist for "a dime's worth of acker
fortis an' a nickel's worth of quicksilver," by which they meant
nitric acid and mercury, to make some kind of itch medicine.
Otto Ernest Rayburn, of Eureka Springs, Arkansas, says that
boiled pokeroot used to be a famous remedy for itch, but "it
burned like fire, and the cure was probably worse than the ail-
ment." A strong ooze of pokeberry root, a man from Madison
county, Arkansas, assures me, "will make you think hell aint
a mile away, but it sure does cure the eetch."
The skin disease called tetter is treated with spunk water or
stump water simply rain water which happens to be retained
in a hollow stump. Bloodroot is good for tetter also, and there
is another herb known as tetter weed, but this latter I have not
been able to identify. The yarb doctors all insist that tetter
weed is not identical with bloodroot (Sanguinaria) which is
called tetterwort in some parts of the United States. The root of
the bull nettle is used in the treatment of skin diseases, according
110 MOUNTAIN MEDICINE
to Otto Ernest Rayburn, of Eureka Springs, Arkansas. I have
seen skin eruptions treated with mud supplied by crushing dirt-
dobbers' nests and adding water mud from these nests is
credited with some astringent virtue not found in ordinary earth.
A poultice of pokeberry leaves is said to cure ivy poisoning. Some
people say that a big dose of sulphur and molasses, with a pinch
of saltpeter, will render a person immune to poison ivy for
several weeks.
Many hillfolk treat ringworm by daubing it with the juice
of a green walnut; this smarts a bit but really does seem to
arrest the ringworm in some cases. Another way of curing ring-
worm is to burn a bit of flannel on a flatiron, so as to leave a
tiny drop of dark-colored oil ; this oil is applied directly to the
ringworm, care being taken not to get any of it on the surround-
ing tissue.
I have heard of Ozark yarb doctors who claim that they can
cure epileptic fits, but I have never met one of these gentlemen.
The old folks say, however, that a poultice of colts-tongue
leaves, applied to the sufferer's forehead, often affords a meas-
ure of relief. "Mirandy" Bauersfeld tells of an Ozark granny
who chewed up fitweed leaves and then thrust them in}:o the
patient's mouth, but I have not been able to find any plant
called fitweed. 2 A tea made of fresh parsley is supposed to be
beneficial in epilepsy, and some yarb doctors prescribe it for
hysteria and other nervous diseases. It is often said that parsley
will stop an epileptic fit, but only in the light of the moon. I
talked with one epileptic boy about this, but he said that he
seldom had a seizure in the light of the moon, whether he drank
parsley water or not. A human bone, pulverized, is sometimes
given internally for epilepsy just a pinch of the powder
stirred into a hot toddy, or a cup of coffee.
Old sores, syphilitic lesions, and skin cancers are sometimes
treated with powder made from the bones of a person long dead.
In order to obtain this material the hillfolk dig into Indian
2 Breezes from Persimmon Holler, p. 129.
MOUNTAIN MEDICINE 111
graves and Bluff Dweller burials under the ledges. The hillman
always tells strangers that he's digging for arrowheads and the
like, which can be sold to tourists ; but I have seen these old
bones broken into small pieces with a hammer and ground up to
be used as medicine.
Some people named Carney, living near Cape Fair, Missouri,
have for several generations been treating skin diseases. They
claim to have cured many cancers. The treatment is simply a
poultice of crushed, boiled sheep sorrel. Some say it must be
boiled in a copper kettle. This stuff is applied freely to the sores
and cures a lot of them, but it is terribly painful. I asked
Dr. J. H. Young of Galena, Missouri, about this, and he said that
the oxalic acid in sheep sorrel was effective, if the patient could
stand it. Of course, he added, the sores that the Carneys had
cured were not really cancers.
Judge Gerrit Snip, Lamar, Missouri, in 1919, announced
publicly that he had healed a cancer on his hand with an in-
fusion of "sheep shower" probably the same as sheep sorrel.
He said it hurt like hell but cured the cancer.
To prevent hives, one has only to put several buckshot into
a glass of water and drink a spoonful of the water every two
hours ; some people say that there must be exactly nine buck-
shot in the glass, no more and no less, but others think that
this numerical idea savors of superstition. If one does get hives
despite all attempts at prophylaxis, maple-leaf tea is the best
remedy ; the hard maple or sugar tree is better than the ordinary
kind. Some hillfolk soak cloths in the tea and apply them to
the skin, others get equally good results by taking large doses
of the stuff internally.
Nearly every hillman has heard of the strange disease called
bold hives or boll hives, supposed to be invariably fatal. Ozark
M.D.'s tell me that there is no such thing, but they have all been
called in great haste to treat the mythical disease. "When I get
there," said Dr. J. H. Young, "I generally find a case of ordinary
hives, and they always get well." Babies are supposed to be es-
112 MOUNTAIN MEDICINE
pecially susceptible to bold hives, but adults sometimes have 'em
too, according to the old settlers.
The fat found on rabbits' kidneys in the fall is said to be
a specific for sexual debility ; I have known several old men who
obtained large quantities of this fat from rabbit trappers and
claimed great things for it. A tea made from black snakeroot
(Cimicifuga) is another powerful aphrodisiac, according to the
wise men of the mountains, but it seems to upset the stomach if
large doses are taken, and is best mixed with whiskey. There is
a widespread belief that a man who "loses his manhood" is
doomed to die before the year is out ; a gentleman ninety-three
years old told me that he used to believe this himself but had
finally been forced to the conclusion that "there aint nothing
to it,"
Ginseng or sang root is supposed to prolong life and to
strengthen the sexual powers in aging men. There are probably
a few old fellows in the Ozarks who still use it, and there are
reports of secret sang patches here and there. But wild ginseng
is almost extinct now, and it sells for between ten dollars and
fifteen dollars per pound. Not many hillfolk can be induced to
eat anything that they can sell for that much money. ,There
are some people down at Compton, Arkansas, who have been
growing the stuff in sang arbors since old "Frost" Petree
started the practice about 1900, but the domestic roots do not
bring the high prices paid for wild sang. The plants don't bear
seeds until they are three years old, and the seeds won't sprout
until two years after they are picked. Roots less than five years
old are hardly big enough to market some of the four-pronged
wild roots are said to be twenty or thirty years old. The whole
project of sang raising is too slow for the hillman's taste.
Most yarb-doctors gather their own yarbs, but there are
many root diggers and herbalists in the Ozarks who collect such
stuff for the market. Much of this material is sold or bartered
to country storekeepers, who ship it to a famous root-and-herb
broker in St. Louis. This man operates a business founded by
MOUNTAIN MEDICINE 118
his father some ninety years ago and sends out a yearly price-
list of nearly one hundred roots, herbs, and barks that he will
buy.
People near Walnut Shade, Missouri, still tell the story of
how an amateur root buyer named Cummins went broke through
buying counterfeit sang. Lou Beardon, who lived on Bear
Creek, discovered that two-year-old pokeroots, properly dried,
look very much like ginseng, and it is said Cummins bought
nearly a hundred dollars' worth of this so-called bogue sang
before he learned to distinguish the two.
Roots for the market must be dug in the fall dig 'em in the
growin' season and they shrink away to nothing. Bark is best
gathered in late winter and early spring. Leaves and herbs
should be collected while the plants are blooming. Flowers are
picked when they first open, seeds are gathered as soon as they
are ripe. All of these things must be dried slowly in the shade
and not shipped until they are perfectly dry, otherwise they
will become moldy and lose their value as medicine. I have
known several backwoods wanderers who lived by gathering
roots and herbs ; it seemed to me that they worked harder than
most farmers, and I don't think many of them earned more than
fifty cents a day. Some of the herbs gathered in the Ozarks are
ultimately sold to legitimate drug houses, while others are no
longer prescribed by regular physicians but are used in various
patent medicines and also by the medicine-show quacks who
still flourish in many parts of the United States.
The yarb doctors are not very well provided with sedatives
or soporifics. They sometimes try to quiet the nerves of alco-
holic patients by rubbing the head with a paste of sunflower
seeds ; I let a woman at Rogers, Arkansas, smear some of this
stuff on my head once, but it didn't seem to do much good. A
thick sassafras-bark shampoo is sometimes used in similar
cases and has the added advantage that it kills headlice as well
as soothing jangled nerves.
A tea made from the roots of the butterfly weed (Asclepias)
114 MOUNTAIN MEDICINE
is supposed to be good for nervousness and restlessness. A pil-
low stuffed with dried hopvines relieves pain and puts the pa-
tient to sleep. Mistletoe leaves are made into a remedy for
dizziness and head noises. Catnip tea is a common sedative,
taken warm just before going to bed. Lady's-slipper (Cypripe-
dium) roots are boiled in milk to make some sort of "nerve
medicine." An infusion of fresh alfalfa, taken in large doses, is
said to quiet the nerves and produce sleep. Mr. Lewis Kelley,
Cyclone, Missouri, tells me that his neighbors used a tea made
of skullcap root (Scutellaria) for nervousness, and it was more
effective than the "nervine" sold at the drugstore. For per-
sistent insomnia, one has only to put a handful of Jimson-weed
(Datura) leaves into each shoe and set the shoes under the bed
with the toes pointing toward the nearest wall. A few Jimson-
weed leaves, placed in the crown of a hat, are believed to protect
the wearer from apoplexy or sunstroke. A tea made from
Jimson weed is used in the treatment of nervousness, hysteria,
and delirium, but without much success so far as I can see.
The shell of a black walnut is supposed to represent the
human skull, and the meat is said to resemble the brain, there-
fore people who show signs of mental aberration are encouraged
to eat walnuts. I know of one case in which an entire family
devoted most of the winter to cracking walnuts for a feeble-
minded boy. They kept it up for years, and I believe the poor
fellow ate literally bushels of walnut goodies.
A few years ago I visited an aged couple in northwest
Arkansas, and noticed a lump of brown resin-like stuff, about
as big as a baseball, on the fireboard. "What is that?" I asked.
The old man grinned. "That's gum opium," said he, "it's been
settin' there since the fall of 1904. They tell me it's agin the
law to sell opium now, but you could buy it at any drugstore
in them days. Whenever I don't feel right peart, or Maw either,
we just scrape off a little o' that stuff and it fixes us right up."
From what I have heard elsewhere it seems that a great many
pioneers took opium or laudanum freely, and always carried
MOUNTAIN MEDICINE 115
it with them, or kept it in their cabins. One might think that
they would have all become dope fiends, but the old-time doctors
say that there was very little drug addiction in those days.
I am told that the early settlers raised hemp, great fields of
it, and used the fibers to make rope and coarse cloth. They never
thought of smoking it, but it was genuine hemp all right (Can-
ndbis sativa), the same plant that is called marijuana nowa-
days. Many people believe that fried fish and sweet milk, taken
into the human stomach at the same meal, combine to form a
deadly poison and several persons have told me that hemp tea
is the only known antidote for this fish-and-milk poisoning.
Some otherwise intelligent and progressive mountain people
patronize the yarb doctor rather than the regular M.D. because
of their fear of surgery. This is understandable when one re-
members that in the early days, with little attempt at aseptic
conditions, often without any anesthetic, even minor operations
were horrible indeed and very often fatal.
Another thing which prejudices the hillfolk against the M.D.
is the fact that so many modern drugs are administered hypo-
dermically. In the old days, the hypodermic needle was used
chiefly for injecting opiates. Very often the doctor was not
called until the patient was desperately ill. When he arrived
to find some poor devil dying in great pain, the physician just
sighed and gave the sufferer a big shot of morphine. Thus the
pioneers came to regard the needle as a kind of death warrant,
and to this day the backwoodsman is afraid of hypodermic
medication. Even children in the schools, who make very little
fuss over being vaccinated against smallpox, often raise a ter-
rific disturbance when the doctor tries to give them a "shot" of
antityphoid serum.
There is a widespread belief that physiological phenomena
are somehow connected with the increase and decrease of the
moon, but the various healers have such divergent ideas of this
that no general principles are apparent to me. The matter is
often mentioned by the yarb doctors in talking with their pa-
116 MOUNTAIN MEDICINE
tients, and I have heard some of these conversations, but can
make little of them. On the whole, it seems that yarb medicines
for internal use are best taken in the "dark" of the moon, when
the moon is waning, since most of them are supposed to stop
some deleterious process, or to arrest some injurious growth.
There are also the signs of the zodiac to be taken into account.
A great number of people believe that stomach trouble is most
likely to be acquired or aggravated when the moon is in Cancer,
diseases of the throat during the sign Taurus, venereal infec-
tions in Scorpio, and so on. The treatment of disease is tied
up with these constellations also, and many people, if forced
to undergo a surgical operation, are careful to postpone it
until an appropriate sign is indicated on the calendar.
In discussing this matter of operations, May Stafford Hil-
burn says that all operations are best performed "when the
sign is going into the feet or legs," unless the operation is to be
performed upon the feet or legs. "We know," she writes, "that
if an abdominal operation is to take place, and the sign is in
the bowels, we can look for trouble." 3
Dr. J. H. Young, of Galena, Missouri, told me that he had
a patient all ready to go to the hospital once, when the man's
relatives suddenly discovered that the sign wasn't right for his
operation and said it must be postponed for about a week.
Young warned them that the patient might be dead before the
week was out, if they didn't let the surgeon operate. They still
refused, so Dr. Young withdrew from the case and washed his
hands of the whole business. The patient survived, and all his
kin are still great believers in "operatin' by the sign."
Dr. Glenn Jones, dentist at Crane, Missouri, told me that
many of his patients waited until the sign was right before hav-
ing teeth extracted, even when they were in considerable pain.
Hillfolk generally agree that a tooth should never be pulled
when the sign is in the head to do this is to risk a serious
hemorrhage. Most people think that extractions go best in
s Missouri Magazine (September, 1933), p. 20.
MOUNTAIN MEDICINE 117
Aquarius or Pisces, but there is no certainty about this. The
old-timers say that it is better to pull a tooth in the morn-
ing than in the afternoon, no matter what constellation the
moon's in.
Some hillfolk imagine that if a pain or disturbance in any
part of the body coincides with the sign as shown for that date
in the almanac, there is no cause for alarm. I once found a
neighbor writhing on the floor with a terrific cramp in his ab-
domen. It occurred to me that the fellow probably had a hot
appendix, and I urged 'him to call a doctor at once. He asked
me to fetch him a calendar from the kitchen, and when he saw
the picture of Virgo he relaxed with a sigh of relief. "The sign's
in the guts," he gasped, "I'll be all right in the mornin' " and
sure enough he was completely recovered five hours later. I have
often known men to complain of sharp pains here and there,
which they explained by saying "the sign's in the ," nam-
ing the part of the body which seemed to be affected. Had the
sign been elsewhere on that particular day, these pains would
have been taken much more seriously.
An old friend showed me a bottle of medicine prescribed for
him by a very competent M.D. named Wade, who used to prac-
tice in Christian county, Missouri. "Take a dose of that stuff
every day," Dr. Wade had told him, "and keep it up till snakes
crawl" Wade prescribed this medicine in late February, and
no snake was seen thereabouts that year until March 24. In-
stead of saying so many days or weeks, this physician used a
real backwoods expression, which pleased the patient much
more than an arbitrary date. He felt that his recovery was
somehow tied up with the orderly processes of Nature, rather
than governed by some man-made rule in a medical book. When
a neighbor boy came running in, on March 24, shouting that
some woodcutters had found a snake, my friend put away the
medicine. He was a well man.
Most of the backwoods healers do little harm, and even the
worst of yarb doctors seldom poison anybody. They kill their
118 MOUNTAIN MEDICINE
patients indirectly sometimes, simply by preventing them from
getting proper medical or surgical treatment. One of my neigh-
bors suffered a ruptured appendix, whereupon the local yarb
doctor assured him that there was no need of an operation and
applied a poultice of hot boiled potatoes. The man died, of
course not because of the poultice, but because the yarb doc-
tor's bad counsel prevented him from calling in a surgeon. Most
of the damage done by yarb doctors and granny-women is of
this negative type.
Occasionally, however, one encounters a bit of medical prac-
tice that seems ill-advised, not to say hazardous. A physician
in southwest Missouri tells me that a young woman in his neigh-
borhood had some sort of colitis painful and depressing, but
not dangerous. Along came a granny-woman who induced this
patient to swallow a half-tumblerful of turkey shot, and she died
a few days later. It appears that people in this vicinity often
take small doses of fine shot for "bowel trouble," without any
apparent damage. "But it certainly doesn't do 'em any good,"
said the doctor grimly.
Another case is that of a hillman who had what was called
"locked bowels." The doctor from a neighboring town said that
he would probably die anyhow but recommended that he be taken
to a hospital at once. Instead of doing this, the patient's brother,
in the presence of the whole family, knocked the patient uncon-
scious by striking the back of his head with a small sack of
salt. The young physician, who had not been long in the Ozarks,
thought that the patient was being murdered before his eyes and
left the house immediately. But the man's people were trying
desperately to save him, working on the theory that unconscious-
ness allows the internal organs to relax and might thus dispose
of the obstruction. After knocking the patient cold, they
"cupped" him with fruit jars of boiling water poured the
water out and clapped the empty jars against his abdomen.
The poor fellow died, as the doctor had predicted. The father
of the dead man said sadly : "Too bad we couldn't save Jim. I've
MOUNTAIN MEDICINE 119
saw several fellers with locked bowels cured that-a-way." It is
said that the physician asked the county officers to place man-
slaughter charges against the bereaved family, but nothing was
ever done about it.
Sometimes when an infant does not grow and function prop-
erly, the granny-women decide that the child is "liver-growed"
meaning that the liver has somehow become attached to the
body wall. In such cases a stout old woman grasps the baby's
left hand and right foot and twists them together behind its
back, then does the same with the right hand and left foot. She
has to pull pretty hard sometimes, and the child hollers some-
thin' turrible, but it's the only treatment for a liver-growed
baby. The more difficult it is to bring the hands and feet together
in this fashion, the more certain it appears that the child is
really liver-growed. This is a rather alarming thing to witness,
but physicians tell me that it does not seem to do any particular
harm.
Another dubious item, to my mind, is the idea that if a small
boy has a fit, the parents should strip him instantly and make
him walk home stark naked. Such treatment may be harmless
in warm weather, but it surely must be a bad thing to force a
little naked screaming child to walk through the snow in the
dead of winter. But there is no doubt that it is still practiced,
in some sections, by parents who are firmly convinced that it is
the proper scientific procedure.
Many yarb doctors insist, when a bullet wound goes clear
through an arm or leg, on trying to pull a silk handkerchief
through the wound. The connection between bullet wounds and
silk handkerchiefs is common enough to have passed into the
language, and there are several stories and backwoods wise-
cracks about it. A boy who once lived in my home was insulted
and enraged when a girl sent him a fine silk handkerchief as a
Christmas present. "She'd orter sent it to Bob Taylor, that's
allus a-kickin' up dust round there," he said grimly, " 'cause
Bob's the one that's goin' to need it !"
120 MOUNTAIN MEDICINE
A farmer in McDonald county, Missouri, had a persistent
headache which the yarb doctors failed to relieve. Finally one
of them told him that his only hope was to have a thin silver
plate set under the scalp at the back of his head. The yarb
doctor remarked that he could do the job himself but advised
the patient to have some "town doctor" attend to it. "It'll cost
ye four or five dollars maybe six," said the yarb doctor, "but
it's worth the money." The patient was so charmed with the
idea of having a silver plate in his head that he rushed into the
office of Dr. Oakley St. John, at Pineville, Missouri, demanding
that the operation be performed immediately. It was with some
difficulty that St. John persuaded him that a silver plate was
not indicated in his case.
Physicians in the Ozark towns have remarked upon the prac-
tice of giving turpentine as a worm medicine. Turpentine is
still administered by many yarb doctors and granny-women,
large doses being given to small children. The stuff may elim-
inate the worms, but it seems to be bad for the child's kidneys.
A lot of little children in the Ozarks die of nephritis, and the
M.D.'S say that nephritis is caused or aggravated by this in-
discriminate dosing with turpentine.
7. The Power Doctors
Very different from the yarb doctors
described above are healers of another
type, who make no pretense to scientific
knowledge but depend entirely upon charms, spells, prayers,
amulets, exorcisms, and magic of one sort or another. These
are the so-called "power doctors," backwoods specialists, each
claiming to be endowed with supernatural power to cure cer-
tain specific ailments. They seldom attempt any general prac-
tice, and most of them take no money for their services, although
they may accept and even demand valuable presents on occasion.
Some of these people, usually old women, can cool fevers merely
by the laying on of hands ; others draw out the fire from burns
by spitting or blowing upon the inflamed areas, while still others
claim to heal more serious lesions by some similar hocus-pocus.
One old lady who specializes in burns says that she always
mutters a few words which she "Parnt out'n the Book" the
Bible, that is but refuses to tell me what particular text is
used.
A gentleman near Crane, Missouri, has enjoyed a great suc-
cess in relieving the pain from superficial burns. He just blows
gently upon the burned place, touches it with his finger tips, and
whispers a little prayer. The prayer may be told to persons of
the other sex, but never imparted to one of the same sex. This
man said he had learned the magic from Mrs. Molly Maxwell,
an old woman who lived in Galena, Missouri. Since he could
not tell me, I asked a young woman to get the secret words
from him. This is what* she heard :
One little Indian, two little Indians,
One named East, one named West,
122 THE POWER DOCTORS
The Son and the Father and the Holy Ghost,
In goes the frost, out comes the fire,
Ask it all in Jesus' name, Amen.
In teaching this prayer to a member of the opposite sex, the
healer said, one should whisper it three times and no more. If a
person cannot learn the prayer after hearing three repetitions,
I was told, "he aint fit to draw out fire nohow !"
Mrs. May Kennedy McCord, of Springfield, Missouri, knows
how to "draw out fire" from a burn. She learned it from Harry
N. Force, an old-time druggist who spent many years in Cotter,
Arkansas. You just mutter: "Two little angels come from
Heaven, one brought fire and the other brought frost, go out
fire and come in frost." As you say the last word you blow gently
on the burn. This "sayin' " is supposed to be a great secret and
must be learned from a member of the opposite sex.
I met an old-time healer near Gainesville, Missouri, who cured
sores, sprains, and bruises in this way: he laid his right hand
on the wounded place, and his left hand on a corresponding
part of his own body. Then he shivered for a moment, threw back
his head, and muttered some gibberish under his breath. Many
people declared themselves benefited by this treatment. I asked
the old man if the magic words were from the Bible. "No, they
shore aint !" said he.
There used to be a woman at West Plains, Missouri, who had
a great reputation as a "blood stopper." A wounded man was
brought to her home in a wagon. The whole wagon bed seemed
to be covered with blood, and the man's friends were unable to
stop the bleeding from two deep knife cuts. The woman looked
at the patient, then walked out to the barn alone, with a Bible
under her arm. In about three minutes the bleeding stopped,
and the healer returned to her house. She would take no money
for "blood stopping," and she would not discuss the method.
She was not a religious woman, and rarely looked at the Bible
except when she was asked to stop the flow of blood. The old
woman confided to a friend that she had already imparted the
THE POWER DOCTORS 123
secret to three persons, and that if she ever told a fourth the
"power" would be taken from her.
"About this blood-stopping charm, it really works," wrote
Otto Ernest Rayburn, of Eureka Springs, Arkansas. "We had
a neighbor at Caddo Gap, who could do it. Our eleven-year-
old son had a severe case of bleeding, and we were unable to
stop it by ordinary methods. We told our neighbor and he asked
the boy's full name, then went out into the yard and repeated
a few words we couldn't hear them. And lo and behold, the
bleeding stopped! I do not know how to explain such things,
but they do happen." Later on Rayburn reports his encounter
with another power doctor who stops bleeding; this man "re-
peats a certain verse from the sixteenth chapter of Ezekiel. He
walks toward the East while repeating the lines. ... A man
who has the power may tell the secret to three women ; a woman
may tell three men. Some think they will lose the power if they
tell the secret to the third person."
Mrs. Anna L. Coffman, of Marshfield, Missouri, says that to
stop bleeding you repeat the sixth verse, sixteenth chapter, of
Ezekiel: "And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in
thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood,
Live ; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live."
Mrs. Callie Brake, Seymour, Missouri, used the same verse,
adding: "You call the person by name and the wound by name
and walk toward the sunrise repeating God's Word and the
bleeding will stop. My daddy always kept that chapter at hand
so he could find it right quick. He would read it if we cut our-
selves dangerously and the great God of Israel would stop the
bleeding. There is no 'charm' about this stopping blood, it is
God's own words." l
Another old woman, perhaps the best blood stopper in Mc-
Donald county, Missouri, simply held up both hands and cried:
Upon Christ's grave three roses bloom,
Stop, blood, stop !
i Springfield (Missouri) News, July 29, 1940.
124 THE POWER DOCTORS
An old gentleman who told a girl reporter the secret of blood
stopping cautioned her never to write it down or publish it, as
in that case the charm would lose its efficacy. Several blood stop-
pers tell me that the secret can only be passed to a person of the
opposite sex, and one said that he could tell it to three persons,
and no more. He had already told two women, and was saving
the third telling for his little granddaughter.
In a letter to Mrs. May Kennedy McCord, written by Mrs.
M. R. Smith, Marionville, Missouri, dated March 7, 1941, Mrs.
Smith says :
Speaking of stopping blood, I can do it. I have on several occasions.
My mother had cancer of the face, and it would bleed till she would
almost pass on. So my brother-in-law told us about an old man in the
neighborhood who could stop blood, and all he needed was to be told
did not have to see the person. So we sent him word one day and
the blood just stopped, all at once. Why or how you will have to
decide for yourself, but it did stop. So my mother wanted that I
should learn how, and this old man taught me, and I stopped my
mother's face bleeding many times. Last time I tried it I stopped
my son-in-law's throat bleeding when he had his tonsils taken out
and they started bleeding after he had worked too hard and got too
warm. So between me and my God, it will work. I can tell only one
more person, and that takes the charm away. A woman tells a man,
who is not a blood relative, and a man tells a woman, who is not a
blood relative. Can only tell three, and the third one takes the charm.
An old man in Joplin, Missouri, told me that perhaps "all
that Bible stuff" was necessary to stop serious hemorrhage, as
when somebody had cut his throat, but an ordinary nosebleed
could easily be "chipped off" without any religious monkey busi-
ness. You just catch a number of drops of the blood on a chip
one drop for each year of the patient's life. Put the chip with
the blood on it in a dry, safe place on a high rafter, for ex-
ample, or seal it up in a dry glass jar. As long as the chip is
not disturbed, the nose will not bleed.
If a patient is suffering from a deep cut or knife thrust, some
power doctors burn the sole of his shoe and apply the ashes to
THE POWER DOCTORS 125
the wound. This is said to stop bleeding and make the cut heal
without "blood poisoning." If the cut is on the right side of the
body, the right shoe is burned ; if the left side of the body is in-
jured, the healer burns the left shoe. In case a man received a
knife wound in the exact center of his chest, I don't know just
what the power doctor would do ; I asked one backwoods healer
about this, but he smiled thinly and made no reply.
One hillman of my acquaintance treats boils, ulcers, and the
like in this wise: he reaches behind him, picks up a stone with-
out looking at it, and spits upon it. Stirring the saliva about
with his finger, he repeats the words :
What I see increase,
What I rub decrease,
and with that he rubs a little on the growth, which is supposed
to disappear in a week or so. All this must be done, however,
when the moon is waning; if it should be attempted before the
full moon the sore would grow larger and larger instead of
wasting away.
One way to cure boils, according to an old neighbor, is to
rub a greasy string on a rusty nail and then throw the nail
away where it will not be found. Hang the string on the inside
of the cabin door, and touch the boil with the string several
times a day.
A woman in Stone county, Missouri, is known far and wide
as a healer of goiters, boils, carbuncles, tumors, open sores, and
even skin cancers though she says modestly that she can't
cure the latter unless she gets them in the early stages. She uses
no drugs nor herbs, just makes a few magic passes and mutters
some secret old sayin's, supposed to be adapted from the Bible,
She says she is "not allowed" to tell how it's done ; the secret is
handed down in the family ; her mother was a healer and "blessed
her with it"; she intends to pass the knowledge on to one of
her own daughters before she dies. This woman makes no charge
for her services, but if somebody offers her a present, such as a
126 THE POWER DOCTORS
new dress or a side of bacon, she seldom refuses the gift. It is
said that those who do not reward her liberally always come to
some misfortune shortly afterward. She must know the name of
the disease before she can treat it; therefore many of her pa-
tients go to the local M.D. for diagnosis and ask him to write
the medical name of their ailment down on a piece of paper.
The whole business is very hush-hush for some reason. I lived
next door to this woman for several months before I learned
that she was a power doctor.
Warts are common enough in the Ozarks, but it is surprising
that so many of these folk remedies should refer exclusively to
warts. Mrs. May Kennedy McCord, Springfield, Missouri, has
collected and written down 125 wart cures. There is a high de-
gree of specialization in these matters, too. I once visited a
renowned wart witch and showed her an infected tick bite on
my anHe. "I'm the best wart taker in this country," she said,
"but that thing on your leg aint no wart it's a risin 9 . I don't
never monkey with risin's. You better go to town an' git Doc
Holton to lance it for ye."
John Proctor Gentry, in Springfield, Missouri, assured me
that he could "conjure" warts. He refused to tell me how it was
done, but Mrs. Gentry says he just touches the wart and mut-
ters something which begins "hocus-pocus" and ends in "un-
intelligible gibberish."
Mr. Rube Cummins, of Day, Missouri, eighty-five years old,
tells me that he has been curing warts in the neighborhood since
he was a boy. "I just tetch 'em, an' then I say a little ceremony
to myself. I don't never tell nobody what the ceremony is."
Asked if the ceremony was something out of the Bible, he said
emphatically that it was not.
There used to be a wart witch at Seneca, Missouri, who tied
a string around the wart, muttered a few words under her
breath, and pulled the string off with a great flourish. Then
she presented the string to the patient and told him to bury it
in the ground where nobody could find it. If the string lay un-
THE POWER DOCTORS 127
disturbed for nine days and nights, she said, the wart would
soon shrivel and gradually disappear.
Another old-timer tells me that it is only necessary to tie a
woolen string around the wart, then spit on the wart and rub
it with the finger tip. This done, remove the string and burn it
secretly.
Warts may be disposed of by hiring some boy to "take them
off your hands" two or three more warts don't matter to a
chap who has a dozen or so already. Just give the boy a penny
or a nickel for each wart,- and they will pass from you to him
as soon as he spends the money.
Some specialists go through a kind of wart-buying ceremony,
but no money actually changes hands. You show the man your
wart, and he says: "Want to sell it?" You answer "Yes, sir."
Whereupon the wart taker produces a big safety pin with many
buttons strung on it. He selects one of these and hands it to you
saying : "Carry that there button in your pocket till the wart's
gone. Hit's mine now, 'cause I done bought an' paid for it."
Another way to "pass" a wart is to spit on it, rub a bit of
paper in the spittle, fold the paper, and drop it in the road;
the wart is supposed to pass to the first person who picks up
the paper and unfolds it. Children are always trying this, and
one can find these little folded papers in the road near most any
rural schoolhouse.
Some hillfolk prefer to lose their warts at a crossroad, or
better still at a place where the road forks three ways. Take a
grain of corn for each wart and place each grain in the road
under a small thin stone. The warts will be taken over by the
person or animal that moves the stones and uncovers the grains
of corn.
Or you may put as many pebbles as you have warts in a
paper bag, walk down the road alone and throw the whole
thing backward over your right shoulder. Whoever picks up the
bag and counts the stones will fall heir to the warts.
One old lady who has cured warts for a large family says
128 THE POWER DOCTORS
that she just lets 'em alone until she happens to dream of a man,
then seeks this fellow out and induces him to spit some tobacco
juice on a penny; after rubbing the warts with the penny she
gives it to the man, and as soon as he spends the coin the warts
drop off. I asked her if the warts "passed" to the men who spit
on the coins. She looked a bit disturbed by this query but an-
swered stoutly that she "never had no complaints."
The exact number of warts is important in some of these cere-
monies. When a hillman tries to remove warts by applying stump
water he repeats this formula :
Stump water, stump water,
Kill these warts !
The dash represents the number of warts that the patient has,
and it is essential to state this number correctly. If a man says
six when he has only five warts, the warts will not be cured, and
another one will appear in a few days.
An old man near Bentonville, Arkansas, had quite a local
reputation as a wart specialist, though he made no secret of
his method, and said that anybody could perform similar cures
if they only "knowed how." He told me that he just fastened a
bit of cloth to the wart, blindfolded the "warty feller," and
turned him around seven times ; then he buried the cloth in the
ground, and very seldom did the wart last more than three or
four days thereafter.
One school of wart catchers place their trust in dirty dish-
rags, and some healers say that they require stolen dishrags.
After touching each wart with the rag, one either buries it se-
cretly in the earth or hides it under a flat rock, being careful to
replace the rock in exactly the position in which it was found.
Sometimes the patient is told that the wart will disappear in
three days, or seven days, or nine days, or twelve days. More
conservative practitioners say rather that as the dishrag de-
composes, the wart will grow smaller and finally disappear. A
THE POWER DOCTORS 129
variation of this procedure is to steal a dishrag and burn it
secretly, then rub the ashes on your warts, and rest assured
that they will soon be gone. But it is essential to avoid telling any-
body that you have done this, else the warts are likely to come
back.
An old man in Pineville, Missouri, told me as a great secret
that he could cure any wart by squeezing a drop of blood out
of it on a grain of corn and feeding the corn to a red rooster.
According to another version of this story, it is best to rub
the wart with two grains of corn, feed one to the rooster, and
carry the other in your pocket. When you lose the grain from
your pocket, the wart will be gone. The losing must be acci-
dental, but that is not difficult ; most cabins are full of rodents,
and a grain of corn in the pocket of one's overalls will soon
"turn up missinV
Another "sleight" for getting rid of a wart is merely to prick
it with a thorn until it bleeds, then throw the thorn over the left
shoulder and walk away without looking back.
If the weather conditions are favorable, one has only to hold
a hailstone against his warts ; as soon as the hailstone melts,
the warts will crumble and fall away. If no hailstone is at hand,
just wet your finger and mark a circle about the wart, and then
make sure that your hand doesn't get wet again for twenty-
four hours. A schoolteacher in Barry county, Missouri, be-
lieves that the best way to get rid of warts is to rub them with
a green bean leaf until each wart looks green and then go to
bed without washing your hands. Another common theory is
that it is only necessary to touch a wart with nine beans and
then throw the beans one at a time over the right shoulder. Or
cut a small potato in two equal parts, and rub the wart with
the same half for three mornings in succession. Or you may just
rub the wart with a piece of onion, then throw the onion back-
ward over your right shoulder and walk away without looking
back. Another school contends that it is best to touch your
180 THE POWER DOCTORS
wart with a whole red onion ; then you cut the onion in two, eat
half of it and bury the other half ; when the buried part decays,
the wart will disappear.
The stick-notching treatment used for many other ailments
is also adapted to the removal of warts. A little boy near Hot
Springs, Arkansas, showed me a green switch with four notches
in it, tied to the end of an old wooden gutter; each notch rep-
resents a wart, he said, and as the water rushes over the notches,
it gradually dissolves away the warts.
Other hillfolk say that it is best to use an elderberry stick,
and to cut the notch carefully so that it just fits over the wart
to be cured. Then bury the stick on the north side of the cabin
and never mention it to a living soul.
A prominent Arkansas lawyer tells me that in his boyhood
the essential thing was to cut big notches in a stranger's apple
tree with a stolen knife, one notch for each wart to be removed.
This was quite an undertaking, for knives were highly prized
and hence difficult to steal. Even more serious was the fact that
the people in the neighborhood were all acquainted, so that a boy
had to travel a considerable distance before he could find a
stranger's apple tree.
Some hillfolk say you can remove warts simply by spit'ting on a
hot stovelid one expectoration for each wart. Another method
favored in some quarters is to get up exactly at midnight and
make faces at yourself in a mirror ; if you do this on three suc-
cessive nights your warts will disappear within a fortnight.
Dr. W. O. Cralle was told in Taney county, Missouri, that the
best way to cure warts is to smother a mole and hold the dead
animal above your head for a moment.
I know several healers in McDonald county, Missouri, who
pretend to do the job by letting a big grasshopper or katydid
bite the wart. They just hold the critter's head up to the wart,
and he'll bite it all right. It is painful for the moment, but they
tell me that the wart soon dries up and falls away.
A group of old-timers in Phelps county, Missouri, contend
THE POWER DOCTORS 131
that the best way to dispose of warts is to carry a black cat,
freshly killed, into a graveyard at night. Some say that the
dead cat must be placed on the grave of a person buried the
same day, and if this person has led a wicked life, so much the
better.
Or one may kill a toad, rub its intestines on the wart, then
bury the entrails under a stone. All this must be kept secret,
otherwise it won't work. The boy who acquainted me with this
method still had several large warts ; when I asked why the
toad's guts hadn't cured them, he explained that he had told
his mother what he was doing, in order to escape punishment
for killing the toad. The mother was opposed to killing toads
in the dooryard ; she said it was an unlucky and senseless prac-
tice and might make the cows give bloody milk.
At the funeral of a close friend, a "warty feller" is supposed
to touch his warts and repeat the following jingle:
They are ringing the funeral bell,
What I now grasp will soon be well,
What ill I have do take away
Like j n the grave does lay.
This is believed to benefit tumors, sores, boils, and even cancers
as well as warts.
There is a widespread belief that warts can be "charmed off"
by touching them with the hand of a corpse. I have seen this
tried several times. The warts disappeared after a while, just
as they generally do under any other treatment, or with no
treatment at all. On the other side of the balance, I have met
an undertaker who handles many bodies every year, and both
his hands are covered with warts !
Ringworms are no trouble to an old-fashioned power doctor.
He just draws a life-sized picture^f the ringworm in the soot
on the bottom of a mush pot and burns off the picture in the
presence of the patient. I was once in a cabin where this was
being done, and the "doctor" himself described it to me a few
132 THE POWER DOCTORS
minutes later, but they would not let me witness the treatment
because my unbelieving gaze might somehow spoil the charm. I
came back two weeks later to see the ringworm and found that
it had almost disappeared.
Otto Ernest Rayburn reports a variation of this method of
curing a ringworm. "Go to a tea kettle of boiling water," he
writes, "rub your thumb in a circle the size of the ringworm on
the inside of the lid, and then around the ringworm. Do the
same with the forefinger, then with the thumb again. Do this
with all the fingers on that hand, alternating each time with
the thumb. When through, go away and do not look back at
the tea kettle." 2
Many healers can cure a sore or a boil by drawing a circle
around it with a burnt stick, and marking a cross in the middle
of it. Others do the job by sprinkling a little line of dust to
form the circle and the cross. Some people charm off a corn
by spitting on the forefinger of the left hand and marking a
cross on the corn three times. Sometimes they mutter some-
thing as they do this, but what magic phrase they use I do not
know.
A family near Noel, Missouri, has inherited an "old sayin' "
which is guaranteed to cure boils, old sores, pimples, and even
blood poisoning. Just cross your hands behind your back and
repeat three times : "Bozz bozzer, mozz mozzer, kozz kozzer !"
The old woman who told me this said that originally her kin-
folk knew what the words meant, and they were supposed to be
Dutch. But somewhere along the line, an ancestor of hers got
the idea that the meaning must be kept secret, and therefore died
without revealing it. "And now," said the old woman, "there
aint nobody livin' that knows, 'less'n it would be in one o' them
Dutch countries across the water !"
The best way to cure a bunion is to rub it three times with a
stone and repeat : "Bunion, bunion, if you be one, leave my foot
and take to this stone." Then bury the stone in the dust of a
2 Ozark Country, p. 259.
THE POWER DOCTORS 183
main-traveled road, not too deep. As soon as the dust is washed
away by rain, or blown away by wind, or worn away by traffic,
so that the stone is fully exposed, your bunion will disappear.
An old man at Harrison, Arkansas, told me that this might
work, all right, but that he had cured his own bunions simply
but turning his shoes upside down every night.
For a pain in the side, pick up a flat rock, spit under it, and
put the rock back exactly where you found it. Some say you
must walk away without looking back; if you ever see that
rock again and recognize it, the sideache will return.
A persistent headache may be "conjured off" by putting a
lock of one's hair under a stone and not mentioning either the
hair or the treatment for seven days. I met a witch doctor in
Little Rock, Arkansas, who cured headaches and eyestrain
simply by writing MOTTEK FOTTEK on a piece of paper and let-
ting the patient burn the paper in the presence of three wit-
nesses. For a "misery in the back" a friend of mine just waits
till he hears the first whippoorwill call in the evening, then lies
down on the ground and rolls over three times. To remove a
"j'int felon" one goes out on a cold night, draws a deep breath,
and runs seven times round the house without exhaling. It's a
good trick if you can do it.
I have been told that a bath in a flowing stream before day-
break on Easter morning will relieve the most stubborn case of
rheumatism, but none of my neighbors have ever tried this
remedy, so far as I can find out.
To cure malaria, chills, fever, and ague all you need is a
hickory peg about a foot long. Drive it into the ground in some
secluded place, where you can visit it unseen. Do not tell any-
one about this business. Go there every day, pull up the peg,
blow seven times into the hole, and replace the peg. After you
have done this for twelve successive days, drive the peg deep
into the earth so that it cannot be seen, and leave it there. You'll
have no more chills and fever that season. If the cure doesn't
work, it means that you have been seen blowing into the hole,
134 THE POWER DOCTORS
or that you have inadvertently mentioned it to somebody.
Here is another way to cure chills : take a piece of silk thread,
tie a knot for each chill that the patient has had, and bury the
string under the drip from the roof of a barn. This must be
done secretly, and the healer must not be a blood relative of the
patient, or of the same sex. If the patient has another chill after
the string is buried, somebody must dig it up and tie another
knot. Some healers make a great show of using a silk string for
infants but claim that a piece of woolen yarn is better for grown-
ups. Others tie the knotted string around a persimmon tree,
instead of burying it.
"Tying off chills" was still practiced in Christian county,
Missouri, as late as 1934. You take a string and measure the
patient's girth at the chest, then go into the woods alone, never
looking back, and find a tree of exactly the same measurement.
First tying one knot in the string for each chill that the patient
has had, you fasten the string about the tree at the height of
the patient's chest. Do not look back at the string after it is
tied around the tree, and do not tell anybody about the matter
until you are sure that the patient has fully recovered.
If a child does not grow fast enough, back him up against a
tree and cut a notch in the bark, on a level with the top of his
head. Put some of the child's hair in the notch. On two occa-
sions I have seen this tried, and one of the children did appear
to grow very rapidly thereafter.
Three drops of cat's blood, in a jigger of whiskey, is said to
cure malarial fever quite as well as any of this complicated
tree magic, but the patient mustn't know that there's anything
unusual in the whiskey, or it won't work. Mrs. May Kennedy
McCord, of Springfield, Missouri, says that some people gather
dirt from the nest of a mockingbird that is setting on three eggs
no more, no less. They dissolve this dirt in lukewarm water
for a gargle, which is supposed to relieve any sort of throat
trouble.
To cure asthma, bore a hole in a black-oak tree, at the height
THE POWER DOCTORS 135
of the patient's head. Drive a little wooden peg into the hole,
so as to hold a lock of his hair. Cut the hair and peg off flush
with the trunk. When the bark grows over the hole so that the
peg is no longer visible, and the patient's hair grows out to re-
place the missing lock, the asthma will be gone forever.
Otto Ernest Rayburn reports a case in which asthma was
cured by tying a live frog on the patient's throat. The frog
"completely absorbed the disease" and was left in position un-
til it died. 3 Rayburn says also that some hillfolk treat asthma
by killing a steer, cutting it open and thrusting the patient's
bare feet into the warm body cavity, and keeping them there
until the entrails cool.
What the hillman calls "sun pain" is a terrible headache
which lasts all day but doesn't keep the patient awake at night.
It must be some sort of sinus trouble, which is relieved in the
prone position. Sometimes the pain persists for many days and
is so severe that the country M.D.'S, usually conservative in pre-
scribing narcotics, administer large doses of morphine or codein.
Mrs. Coral Almy Wilson, of Zinc, Arkansas, tells me that peo-
ple in her neighborhood treat sun pain by bathing their heads
in a stream which flows toward the east. The old-timers used to
stir up a certain kind of fungi or green mold and "breathe the
stink" in nine deep inhalations, on nine successive days ; this
was supposed to relieve head catarrh, which we call sinusitis
nowadays.
The body of a buzzard is somehow used to treat cancer, but
this must be done secretly, for the killing of a buzzard means
seven years of crop failure for the whole countryside, and the
man who shoots one of these birds is naturally unpopular. Dr.
Oakley St. John, of Pineville, Missouri, tells me that a farmer
who killed a buzzard some years ago, to treat his daughter's
cancer, so enraged his neighbors that they threatened him with
bodily harm, and several people came into town to see if he could
not be punished by the county officers.
Ozark Country, p. 258.
136 THE POWER DOCTORS
I have copied the following literatim from an old letter, dated
1869, belonging to Miss Jewell Perriman, Jenkins, Missouri.
A RESBPT TO CURB CANCERS
Git up soon and dont speak tell you git to a bush and ef hit is a post
oak or aney other kinde of oak you must say Good morning Mr post
oak and then say Good morning Sir then say I have came to git you
to cure a cancer on my . And take your rite hand and brake
off a lira and then turn your back to the bush and thro the lim over
your left sholder and don't look back. . . . And you must go before
sun up and not speak tell you git to the bush.
Any posthumous child can cure the croup simply by blowing
in the patient's mouth ; one of my neighbors happened to be
born several weeks after his father's death, and although he
ridicules the healing power himself, he is frequently called out
of his bed at night by distracted parents who want him to save
their children. The same treatment is used for sore mouth in
babies, a white, cotton-like eruption which is called thrash or
thresh.
In certain backwoods settlements in Arkansas it is believed
that all one need do to cure thrash is to have a preacher blow
in the child's mouth. A preacher I know tells me he; has done
this hundreds of times, although he has little faith in the rem-
edy. "They git well, all right," he said, "but I can't see as they
git well any quicker'n them which I don't blow in their mouth.
But there aint no harm in it, an' I aim to 'commodate folks
whenever I can."
Some power doctors cure thrash without blowing into the
child's mouth; they even profess to do it at a great distance,
by mail or over the telephone. But it appears that the healer
always wants to know the child's full name. In one case the
baby's name had not been fully decided upon, but the man
would do nothing about the thrash until the baby's parents had
agreed about the name. A granny-woman of my acquaintance
must have not only the full name but also the date of the child's
birth : she ernes outdoors and repeats the mairir; words three
THE POWER DOCTORS 187
mornings in succession, before sunup, and the thrash is gone.
She would not tell me the formula, but said that it had nothing
to do with the Bible, and that God was not mentioned in it.
Dr. W. O. Cralle tells of a woman at Theodosia, Missouri,
who treated thrash by holding the child extended in her arms
while she repeated: "In the name of the Father, the Son and
the Holy Ghost, I command you to leave this child's mouth and
enter the mouth of some dumb beast !"
An old woman in Washington county, Arkansas, told me
that all these spells and charms are "just ignorant foolish-
ment," adding that she had reared eleven children and never
had any difficulty in keepin' 'em clear o' thresh. "An' no monkey
business, neither. All I ever done was to make 'em drink rain
water out of an old shoe. The only thing is, you got to make
sure that the shoe aint never been wore by any o' the baby's
kinfolks."
A granny-woman in the Cookson Hill country of eastern Okla-
homa treated thrash simply by putting crushed green oak
leaves in the child's mouth every three hours, and the babes in
her charge recovered about as quickly as those submitted to
supernatural spells. If no green leaves were handy, she used sage
tea, with some honey and a little alum in it, which seemed to
work about as well as the oak leaves.
There is no excuse for a properly reared mountain baby ever
having thrash anyhow, since it can be prevented by carrying
the newborn babe to a small hole in the wall or chinking and
allowing the sunlight which streams through to enter the child's
mouth.
A woman at Noel, Missouri, told me that an old charm to kill
intestinal worms had been passed down in her family for at least
three generations. All you have to do is look the patient in the
eye, cross your fingers behind your back and say :
God's mother ~Mary walked the land,
She held three worms all in her hand,
One white, one black, an* t'other'n red,
For Jesus' sake the worms are dead !
138 THE POWER DOCTORS
Trachoma is very common in the Ozark country, and there
are many superstitions about sore eyes, granulated lids, and
other "eye troubles." The tail of a black cat, drawn across the
eye every day, is the prime remedy for granulated eyelids ; some
healers even claim to have cured cataract with this simple remedy,
reinforced by a few "old sayin's." In treating what is known
as a sty, it is necessary to cut the end of the cat's tail a bit and
apply a few drops of the blood to the sty itself, repeating this
performance daily until relief is obtained. Another method is
for the sufferer to go alone to a crossroads, exactly at midnight
in the dark of the moon, and cry :
Sty, sty, leave my eye,
Go to the next feller passin* by !
Certain minor eye troubles are treated with a weed called
eyebright, but I have not been able to learn just how this plant
is used. If a baby's eyes are sore, the mother's milk is regarded
as the best possible lotion. Sassafras tea, not too strong, is also
regarded as a good eye wash. Young girls often rub sweet cream
into their eyes, but I am not sure if this is a medicine or a cos-
metic.
The hillfolk try to avoid looking directly at a person who
has sore eyes, fearing that their own eyes may be affected. They
do not realize that trachoma is infectious, however, and use
towels, wash basins, and the like without any fear of contracting
the disease. I have heard a highschool teacher insist that girls
with "pinkeye" should wear colored glasses, not for the sake
of their own eyes, but to keep other students from catching the
disease. When the schools at Blue Eye, Missouri, were closed
because of an epidemic of pinkeye the fact was mentioned by
newspapers all over the country. The citizens of Blue Eye were
not pleased, since they think pinkeye is caused by uncleanli-
ness.
A girl from Cape Fair, Missouri, once told me that a woman
can peel or cut up raw onions without making her eyes smart,
THE POWER DOCTORS 139
simply by holding a needle in her mouth while she does the job.
And in other backwoods towns I have heard that a needle in the
mouth is generally believed to be good for sore or watery eyes,
no matter what the cause of the irritation. Akin to this perhaps
is the idea that an object held in the mouth somehow affects the
inner ear and the organs of equilibrium. A sober and educated
woman, the wife of a preacher in Yell county, Arkansas, told
me that she could never walk a certain difficult footlog until
some "peckerwood gals" showed her how. "All you have to do,"
she told me, "is to hold a little stick crosswise in your mouth !"
I have known old people who went to a great deal of trouble
to obtain pieces of hornets' nests, which they used to wipe their
spectacles. Not only does this stuff clean the lenses better than
the finest cloth or paper, they say, but it is somehow good for
sore and tired eyes.
Many backwoods people believe that a man with weak eyes
should always grow a mustache, as hair on the upper lip
strengthens the eyes. One man told me that when one of his
eyes was injured, the pain in his upper lip was worse than that
in the eye itself, so that it was quite impossible for him to shave
the upper lip for several weeks.
Wearing a green ring is good for people who have weak or
defective eyesight. I once met a blind street singer in Little Rock,
Arkansas, who wore two rings with large green stones in them.
Asked if he expected these rings to restore his sight, he said "No,
but I got the damn' things before I went blind, figgerin' they
might strengthen my eyes. It didn't do me no good, but I got
'em, so I might as well wear 'em."
Piercing the ears is supposed to prevent or cure certain types
of eye disease. Even little boys' ears are sometimes pierced for
this reason, although I have never seen an Ozark boy wearing
earrings. It is said that the child who can spit on a lightning
bug in full flight will enjoy good vision all his life.
When a foreign body gets into the eye, just press a big white
button against the eyelid and wink repeatedly; the object which
140 THE POWER DOCTORS
is causing the trouble will pass out through one of the holes in
the button. Near Day, Missouri, a small boy got some sawdust
in his eye. A friend cut a small pearl button off his shirt, washed
it carefully, and somehow placed it under the boy's eyelid. I
was told that the poor chap walked about for several minutes,
with the big bulge in his eyelid plainly visible. It must have been
terribly painful, but he stuck with it until the tears washed the
sawdust away.
I have heard some talk in Searcy county, Arkansas, of an eye-
stone. This thing is said to work like a madstone, except that
it is very small, no larger than a BB shot. One man told me that
he had seen several of these eyestones, and that they looked like
opals. You just wet the stone and slip it under the eyelid; in a
few minutes it is supposed to draw any foreign substance out
of the eye.
The madstone treatment for rabies was once popular in many
parts of the United States and is still well known in the Ozarks.
The madstones I have seen are porous and resemble some sort
of volcanic ash, but the natives all claim that they were taken
from the entrails of deer. These stones are rare now, and they
are handed down from father to son, never sold. No charge is
made for using the stone, although the patient may make the
owner a present if he likes. I have never seen the madstone in
actual use, but they tell me that if the dog was really mad the
stone sticks fast to the wound and draws the "pizen" out. After
awhile the stone falls off, and is placed in a vessel of warm
milk, which immediately turns green. The stone is then applied
to the wound again, and so on until it no longer imparts a green
color to the fresh milk. Virtually every old-time hillman believes
that if the madstone is applied soon enough and sticks properly,
the patient will never suffer from rabies, even if the dog was mad.
J. J. Hibler, veteran real-estate dealer in Springfield, Mis-
souri, kept a madstone in his office for many years ; it was fa-
mous in the nineties, and people came from all over southwest
Missouri to use it.
THE POWER DOCTORS 141
Homer Davis, of Monett, Missouri, used to have a madstone,
shaped like a half-moon. The old-timers say that it was always
dipped in hot milk before applying it to a wound. It was a porous
stone, said to have been taken from the stomach of an albino
deer more than seventy-five years ago.
Many old people allege that the madstone in a deer is always
found in the stomach, while others place it in the intestines or
the bladder, or in the udder of a doe, or even "betwixt the wind-
pipe and the lights." Uncle Lum Booth, of Taney county, Mis-
souri, who had given the matter considerable thought, said that
so long as the deer was white it made no difference in what part
of the body the stone appeared.
Even in Kansas City, Missouri, madstones were still in use
as late as 1931, according to the Kansas City Journal-Post,
Aug. 4, 1935. A stone belonging to Mr. Noel E. Jackson, aged
pioneer, is said to have been brought from Scotland in the early
days by a man named Bates. It looks like whitish limestone,
about an inch and a half long, with a sort of honeycomb struc-
ture; it has the appearance of a fossil, though Mr. Jackson
thinks it came from the stomach of a deer. He says he has seen
this stone used hundreds of times and has never known it to
fail. He has never charged a cent for the use of it. In 1931 Mr.
S. T. Dailey of Strasburg, Missouri, was bitten by a rabid mule.
The stone adhered to Dailey's wound for nine hours. Jackson
says the stone is often applied to the same patient several times.
In the case of a little girl from Independence, Missouri, it stuck
for fifty-five minutes and then fell off. Jackson cleaned the thing
in sweet milk, dried it carefully, and two days later he applied
it again. This second time the stone adhered for thirty-five
minutes. Several days later it was tried again, but failed to stick
at all, which the neighbors regarded as evidence that the child
was safe from rabies.
Miss Naomi Clarke, of Winslow, Arkansas, writes me that
madstones are applied to the bites of poisonous snakes as well
as dog bites in her neighborhood. I have seen nothing of this
142 THE POWER DOCTORS
myself and have so far been unable to learn anything definite
about it.
"A hair of the dog that bit you," in the Ozarks, does not
mean simply a morning shot of whiskey to repair a hangover.
People actually do swallow hair from a dog that has bitten
them. I once knew a man who was in some doubt as to which of
two dogs had bitten his little girl; finally he killed both of the
animals, and forced the child to eat a few hairs from each dog's
tail. This man would not admit that he believed such a pro-
cedure would prevent rabies. He said that the dogs ought to
be killed anyhow, and that the business of swallowing the hairs
was a very old custom, and there might be something in it.
The idea that rabies is especially prevalent during the "dog
days" of late summer, under the influence of Sirius the dog star,
is pretty well exploded in most sections of the United States.
But it is still widely accepted in the Ozarks, and I am told that
some towns, in both Missouri and Arkansas, have passed ordi-
nances forcing the citizens to confine their dogs at this season.
Many hillfolk believe that it is dangerous to go swimming in
"dog days," especially if one has cuts or open wounds in the
skin, since the water is poisonous and may produce an infection
akin to rabies. A lot of intelligent people in Sebastiari county,
Arkansas, are convinced that the green scum which appears on
ponds in summer has something to do with rabies. "I know the
doctors don't believe it," an old farmer told me, "but the doc-
tors aint always right."
Some woodcutters who live on Sugar Creek, in Benton county,
Arkansas, believe that a mad dog never bites a man who carries
a piece of dogwood in his pocket, according to an old gentleman
I met in Bentonville. "The folks up that way are all damn' fools,
though," he added thoughtfully, "an' maybe there aint nothing
to it." Another Benton county man told me that sensible peo-
ple are seldom bitten by rabid dogs anyhow. "If you just hold
your breath," said he, "a dog caint bite you, whether he's mad
or not."
THE POWER DOCTORS 143
To stop a toothache, one has only to walk into the woods
with a friend of the opposite sex, not a blood relation. Stand up
against the biggest ironwood tree you can find, while your friend
drives a little wooden peg into the tree at the exact height of
the aching tooth. I have seen many of these "toothache pegs,"
and when I pulled one out invariably found some brown gummy
substance in the hole. But people who do this trick tell me that
the peg is perfectly clean when it is driven into the tree. To
check this matter I drove some pegs into an ironwood tree my-
self, without any toothache or magical mumbo jumbo; I pulled
these out later, at intervals varying from a few weeks to a year,
but never found any gummy stuff on my pegs. There may be
more to this toothache-peg business than I have been told, but
I am setting down such information as I have, for the sake of
the record.
Another way to cure toothache is to find the skeleton of a
horse or mule. Be sure that nobody is watching you. Pick up
the jawbone with your teeth and walk backward nine steps, being
careful not to touch the thing with your hands, and then let
it fall to the ground. This done, walk away without looking
back, and do not mention the matter to anybody. If the pain
doesn't stop within thirty minutes or so, it means that some-
body did see you with the mule's jaw in your mouth. In that
case, the only thing you can do is to hunt up another skeleton
and go through the whole business again.
A man in McDonald county, Missouri, showed me a big tooth
fastened to a leathern string, hanging over the fireplace. "That
there," he said solemnly, "is the blind tooth of a big boar hog.
Whenever one o' the childern gits the toothache, I make 'em
wear that tooth round their neck till the ache's plumb gone."
The blind tooth, I found out later, is the hindmost upper molar,
but why this particular tooth is required for a cure I do not
know. A boar's tusk, which is the canine or eye-tooth, carried
in the pocket is said to relieve toothache. If the aching tooth is
on the right side, carry the tusk in the right-hand pocket ; if on
144 THE POWER DOCTORS
the left, carry it in the left-hand pocket. The tusk treatment
serves a double purpose, since the carrying of a boar's tusk is
also believed to protect the carrier against venereal disease.
Some people believe that a man who always puts his left shoe
on first will never have a toothache; it appears that most men
put on the right shoe before the left. I know several families who
always keep a supply of toothpicks made from a lightnin'-struck
tree ; the use of these splinters is believed to stop the teeth from
aching, and prevent decay. The hillfolk sometimes deaden an
aching tooth by filling the cavity with gunpowder they say it's
very painful for a minute or so, and then the tooth feels fine for
several hours. Aunt Mary Johnson, of Theodosia, Missouri, is
quoted as saying that the best plug for a holler tooth is a bit
of wax from the patient's ear. Another method of treating tooth-
ache is to tie knots in a string, one knot for every tooth which
doesn't ache. If all else fails, the tooth is extracted, either by a
regular dentist or an old-time "tooth jumper" who does the job
with a specially made punch and mallet.
Some say that it is good luck to place one of your own teeth
under your pillow at night this is supposed to prevent further
dental decay. But to lose such a tooth, or have it fall into the
hands of an unfriendly person, may bring disaster to the whole
family.
To make teething easier, backwoods babies often wear neck-
laces of elder twigs, cut into short sections and dyed brown ; a
woman told me that the twigs were brown because they had been
boiled in possum grease, but it looked more like walnut stain to
me. A silver coin hung round the child's neck is said to help in
cutting teeth. Some people think that a string of dried berries
is better for teething babies, and that a necklace made of Job's-
tears is best of all. Job's-tears are the seeds of Coix lachryma
and used to be sold in country drugstores.
In some parts of Arkansas, when a babe has a hard time in
cutting its teeth, they kill a rabbit and rub the fresh brains on
the child's gums. Another way to make teeth come easier is to
THE POWER DOCTORS 145
give the child a mole's foot to play with. The old tradition is
that it should be the left hind foot, but the big fleshy front
paws are the only ones I have actually seen given to babies. I
have heard hillfolk say that the best thing for a teething baby
is to put butterfly eggs on its throat, but am not sure that this
is meant to be taken literally.
Parents sometimes collect a child's milk teeth as they are shed
and bury each one separately under a stone; they believe that
this will prevent dental decay in later life. "Whatever you do,"
an old woman told me, "don't never leave a child's baby tooth
lay around where the hogs can git at it. If a hog swallers one
o' them teeth, a great big tush will grow in its place !" When a
child's tooth is extracted, he is told that a fine new gold tooth
will replace it within a week, provided that he refrains in the
meantime from probing the cavity with his tongue.
A bright new dime, placed inside the upper lip in front of
the teeth, will often cure bleeding gums or even stop nosebleed.
People in Stone county, Missouri, use a folded bit of brown pa-
per instead of the coin. A white bone button, held in the mouth,
is recommended for any pain above the tongue, especially head-
aches and earaches.
Some mountain folk cure the earache, it is said, by putting
a brass button in the patient's mouth and then unexpectedly
discharging a gun behind his back. There are several more or
less funny stories about this treatment, one in particular about
a boy who swallowed the button when the gun went off. The
earache was cured, but he had a terrible pain in his throat. Later
on he complained of cramps in the stomach and was dosed with
May-apple root, which is a drastic purgative. Still later came a
severe pain in the bowels, and finally he screamed with agony
as the big button was discharged from the rectum. The boy
sighed with relief for a moment, just after the button was ex-
pelled. Then he sprang to his feet and howled again the ear-
ache was just as bad as ever.
Another common treatment for earache is to prick a betsey
146 THE POWER DOCTORS
bug with a pin and put a drop of its blood into the ear. There
seem to be several species of insects called betsey bugs or bessy
bugs ; one is a big black beetle, nearly two inches long, found in
old stumps and rotten wood. People subject to earache some-
times keep several of these betsey bugs alive in a glass jar, to
be used as needed.
Some families are accustomed to treat chills-an'-fever by
placing an ax under the patient's bed. Since this procedure is
also used in "granny-cases" to relieve the pains of childbirth,
there are many jokes and wisecracks about it. I once went to
see a very fat man, who had malarial fever. He stayed in bed
as the doctor ordered and took the doctor's medicine, but his
wife held to the old superstition and insisted on putting an ax
under the bed. I noticed this when I came into the room, and
asked: "What's that ax doing there? You expecting burglars?"
He laughed and clasped both hands over his great paunch, twist-
ing his face in a ghastly imitation of a woman in labor. "Naw,"
he answered, "just expectin'!"
Many people think it is a good idea to burn feathers from a
black hen under the bed of a fever patient. I have seen the
feathers of black chickens dried and saved in little paper bags
for this purpose. For night sweats some hillfolk put a pan of
water under the bed ; I have known the wife of an M.D. to do this
in her own home, without the doctor's knowledge. May Stafford
Hilburn says that "if the case was persistent we sprinkled black
pepper in the water. Usually in three nights an improvement
could be noticed, but in some cases it might take a week. This
remedy seldom failed. In fact, I do not know of a case where
it did fail." 4
Most Ozarkers are much afraid of the painful disease called
shingles, since it is commonly believed if the inflamed area ever
completely encircles the body, the patient will die. Regular
physicians say that this never happens, since shingles always
follows certain nerve sheaths, which do not quite come together
* Missouri Magazine (September, 1933), p. 21.
THE POWER DOCTORS 147
in front. The old-timers insist that they have seen men die of
the shingles, and they continue to fear this ailment above many
more serious diseases. A lawyer in Joplin, Missouri, tells of be-
ing awakened in the middle of the night and induced to drive
forty miles into the country to make a will for a dying man.
When he got there he found that his client had shingles, and
since the red spots came near meeting in front, the poor fellow
was convinced that he had only a few hours to live.
A power doctor near Fayetteville, Arkansas, says that in
order to cure shingles^one has only to cut off the head of a black
chicken and smear the blood thickly over the affected parts.
Wrap the patient in sheets and let the whole mess dry. Next
morning you just soak the wrappings off, and the shingles will
be gone.
Miss Jewell Perriman, of Jenkins, Missouri, reports that in
her neighborhood a black cat is sacrificed to treat shingles. She
knew a man whose shingles had "nearly gone around" him, but
the power doctors cured him by killing a black cat and applying
the blood.
In some places one finds people who believe that the blood
of black birds or animals has some special virtue as a treatment
for any sort of skin eruption. Only a few miles from the city
of Hot Springs, Arkansas, two young girls stole a black dog
and killed it, in order to use the blood as a remedy for smallpox ;
they believed that by smearing their faces with the dog's blood
they could avoid being pitted or scarred by the disease.
At many points in Missouri and Arkansas country folk treat
chickenpox by bringing a black hen and chickens into the sick-
room and making them walk over the patient's body as he lies in
bed. Near Bentonville, Arkansas, I knew a woman who brought
a black rooster into her house and placed it again and again
upon the bed where a little boy lay sick with chickenpox. I
asked a local M.D. what he thought of this treatment. "Well, it
can't do any harm," he said, "the bed was dirty anyhow." There
are several funny stories about the black-chicken-on-the-bed
148 THE POWER DOCTORS
business, and it may be supposed to accomplish something be-
yond the cure of chickenpox.
Mrs. C. P. Mahnkey, of Mincy, Missouri, tells me that one of
her neighbors treated a goiter by baking a toad in the oven till
the oil ran out of it and putting a little of this toad oil on the
goiter every day. It got better, too, says Mrs. Mahnkey. An-
other goiter treatment is to wear a little packet of salt on a
string round the neck. The salt is renewed every day, and the
used salt buried in the ground each night. Some people believe
that the only way to cure a goiter is to rub it with a dead
man's hand. A small-town undertaker tells me that an old woman
in the neighborhood is always coming to his place, wanting to
try this. A goiter is said to be reduced by applying the two
halves of an apple, after which the patient eats one half and
buries the other half in a cemetery. Some old-timers contend
that the part buried must be put into the coffin of a friend of
the opposite sex, with whom the patient had been intimate.
It is said that a tongue-tied child may be cured by making
him drink rain water out of a new bell. I know of several families
who actually tried this, but without any benefit so far as I can
see.
Grease from the mountings of a church bell, put into the ears
at intervals, is believed to cure deafness. In answer to my ques-
tion, two old ladies told me plainly that the grease from a school
bell would not do. Well, I persisted, what about the Fair Grove
bell? Everybody knows that Fair Grove is a schoolhouse on
weekdays, and a church house on Sundays, and they have
only one bell. This disturbed the old folks for a moment, but
then they answered that the bell at Fair Grove was a school
bell, and the "meetin'ers" used it on Sundays only because
they didn't have no church bell. It served the purpose of calling
the worshipers together, but it was not a church bell, and grease
from its mountings would not cure deafness.
The best way to stop hiccoughs is to run around the house
THE POWER DOCTORS 149
seven times without drawing one's breath. Or you can just stand
on one leg and cry "Hick-up, stick-up, lick-up, hick-up" three
times without pausing for breath. Some healers claim to cure
hiccoughs by rubbing a rabbit's foot on the back of the patient's
neck unexpectedly. If all else fails, just stick your fingers in
your ears, and have a person of the opposite sex .pour nine cups
of rain water down your throat.
As recently as 1942, in a modern hospital at Springfield,
Missouri, a patient insisted upon treating his hiccoughs by
naming three grains of corn for three friends, and then putting
the corn into a vessel of water which was to be suspended above
his head.
A woman in Greene county, Missouri, used to tell her fam-
ily that, in the early 1880's, she saw a child "ground in the
hopper" to cure some sort of paralysis. The whole family went
to a primitive neighborhood grist mill, and the miller placed
the sick girl in some part of the machinery. The thing spun
round and round, and when the little patient was lifted out and
placed upon the floor, she became dizzy and vomited. The others
stood and watched in silence. There were no comments and no
questions. It was a solemn occasion. The miller took it all quite
seriously too and had evidently been called upon for the same
service before.
Mrs. May Kennedy McCord, of Springfield, Missouri, tells
of a novel treatment for colic in infants. You just take nine
honeybees, alive in a tin can, and roast them in a hot oven.
When the bees are absolutely dry, grind them up into a fine
powder and feed it to the baby in syrup. Mrs. McCord learned
of this "cure" from Mrs. George Roebuck, of Morrisville, Mis-
souri, and Mrs. Roebuck had it from some elderly people in the
Boston range of the Arkansas Ozarks.
Another way of curing colic is for the mother to hold the
baby upright, walk three steps backward without speaking, and
then give the child a drink of water from a brass thimble. If the
150 THE POWER DOCTORS
child has convulsions or "spasms," they may be relieved tem-
porarily at least by wiping the child's face with a greasy dish-
rag.
Fred Starr, of Greenland, Arkansas, has a sure cure for
leg cramps, learned from a granny-woman in Washington
county, Arkansas. All you have to do, he says, is to stick the
toe of one shoe inside the other when you go to bed, and leave
'fcm that way all night. An old gentleman who lives in Hickory
. county, Missouri, tells me that he wards off cramps and leg
pains by carrying a dried puffball in his pocket.
To relieve neuralgia or neuritis, especially if the pain is in
the back or the legs, one has only to walk around the room
three times every morning, without a stitch on but the left sock
and shoe. A lady in Little Rock, Arkansas, told me that this
had been known in her family for at least four generations and
was taken very seriously by the older people.
There are several very strange notions about venereal dis-
ease in the hill country. Nearly all of the old-timers are con-
vinced that gonorrhea and syphilis are simply two different
stages of the same ailment, and that gonorrhea will invariably
turn into syphilis if not properly treated. It is generally be-
lieved that all prostitutes are diseased, and that any woman
who has sexual intercourse with seven different men will acquire
a "bad sickness," even though all the men are free from venereal
infection. Many country folk believe that venereal disease is
much less likely to be contracted when the moon is in its last
quarter than at any other time. Some hill people think that
the best way to cure a "dose" of syphilis or gonorrhea is by
communicating it to as many other persons as possible a
theory that is responsible for untold misery in the Ozark coun-
try.
Every old woman has heard that owls' eggs are a sure cure
for alcoholism. Owls lay their eggs in March, and it is said
that many Ozark children are kept out of school and sent by
their mothers to search for owls' nests in the tall timber. Many
THE POWER DOCTORS 151
a hillman has been fed owls' eggs, scrambled or disguised in
one way and another, without knowing what he was eating.
Another way of curing drunkards is to put a live minnow in
whiskey and let it die there. The poor chap who drinks this
contaminated whiskey doesn't notice anything wrong with the
taste, but it is supposed to destroy his appetite for liquor.
It is said that some Ozark temperance workers have advo-
cated placing a pawpaw in the hand of a dying person ; if a
drunkard, not knowing of the "cunjure," can be persuaded to
eat this pawpaw, he will quit drinking in spite of himself. My
wife and I knew an old woman who, when the doctor told her
she was dying, called for a pawpaw. She held the fruit for a
moment, then asked that it be fed to her youngest son after her
death. This was done, but the boy was still a booze fighter the
last I heard of him.
The hill people have singular notions of the best means of
preventing disease, and many of them carry charms or amulets
of one sort or another. A prostitute in Little Rock, Arkansas,
always wore two or three turns of fine wire around her leg; she
said this was a protection against venereal disease. I observed,
however, that she also used the conventional prophylactic meas-
ures favored by the girls who do not wear wires round their
ankles.
Dr. Hershel Shockey, an osteopath who practiced in Stone
county, Missouri, during the Second World War, told me that
he saw a young man with some rare skin disease brought into
an osteopathic clinic in Kansas City. This patient was a hill-
billy from southwest Missouri. Told to strip, he took off every-
thing but a piece of copper wire wound about his arm. Jok-
ingly one of the physicians tried to remove this wire, but the
patient wouldn't have it offered to fight the whole hospital
staff rather than take off that little twist of wire.
A copper ring, or a piece of sheet copper carried next the
skin, is believed to ward off attacks of rheumatism as well as
venereal infection. I have seen old men in Arkansas with long
152 THE POWER DOCTORS
pieces of copper wire wound round their ankles, under their
socks. In the early days it is said that the telegraph companies
had considerable difficulty with hillfolk who cut off pieces of
telegraph wire for this purpose. Some young people now con-
tend that an ordinary brass finger ring works just as well as
pure copper, but the old-timers still cling to their wire anklets.
Nails taken from a gallows are supposed to protect a man
against venereal disease and death by violence. Country black-
smiths used to secure these nails and hammer them out into finger
rings. As recently as 1943 there were boys in the Army wearing
rings of metal taken from a gallows at Galena, Missouri, where
"Red" Jackson was hanged for murder in 1936.
I have known hillmen to spend hours and even days searching
the rivers for very large crawpappies in order to get the two
circular lucky-bones found in their bodies. These are carried in
the pockets to ward off syphilis. The bigger the bones the bet-
ter, and really large lucky-bones are rare.
Some mountain men wear wide leather cartridge belts, not to
carry cartridges in, but because they believe that the wearing
of such belts prevents rheumatism and arthritis. One school
contends that a potato carried on the person keeps^ off rheu-
matism as well as anything. Others think that a buzzard's feather
is best of all, a belief attributed to the Cherokees ; an old woman
near Southwest City, Missouri, painfully bent and twisted by
rheumatism, assured me that the black feather she always wore
in her hair "had done more good than twenty year o' doctorin' I"
A man in Washington county, Arkansas, credited his freedom
from rheumatiz and neuralgy to a nutmeg which he carried for
many years; he had induced a jeweler to drill a hole through
the thing and wore it on a black shoestring round his neck. "In
central Missouri," says Fanny D. Bergen, "rheumatism is pre-
vented by carrying in the pocket a nutmeg or a walnut, Juglans
nigra." 5 I have inquired about this, but have never found an
Ozarker who used a black walnut as a pocket piece.
* Journal of American Folklore, V (1892), 20.
THE POWER DOCTORS 153
Many Ozark hillmen carry buckeyes in their pockets, and
this practice is not confined to the backwoods districts. The two
most important bankers in Springfield, Missouri, are buckeye
carriers ; so is the head of one of the biggest corporations in
St. Louis, and also a recent mayor of Kansas City, Missouri.
At least one governor of Arkansas not only carried a buckeye
but was also known to flourish it publicly on occasions of great
emotional stress.
There is an old saying that no man was ever found dead
with a buckeye in his pocket, but this is not to be taken seri-
ously. Most people who carry buckeyes regard them as a pro-
tection against rheumatism, or hemorrhoids. One of the most
successful physicians in southwest Missouri always carries a
buckeye ; when it was mislaid once he was very much disturbed
and let an officeful of patients wait until his pocket piece was
recovered. It is very bad luck to lose a buckeye. I asked this
doctor about it once. "No, I'm not superstitious," he said grin-
ning, "I just don't want to get the rheumatism !"
To some people the buckeye means more than mere protec-
tion from piles and rheumatism. I once saw a young fellow with
a very old truck, about to attempt the crossing of Bear Creek,
in Taney county, Missouri. The water was high, and the ford
was very bad. The boy looked the situation over carefully, then
set his jaw and climbed into the driver's seat. "Well, I've got a
buckeye in my pocket," he said quite seriously. "I believe I can
make it !"
There is a persistent story that the custom of carrying buck-
eyes came from the Osage Indians, who used them in poisoning
fish. But the Osages tell me that it was the root of the buck-
eye tree, not the nut, that they used to kill fish. And I have
never found an Osage who would admit that he carried a buck-
eye for luck.
Wearing a green penny in a sack round the neck is supposed
to prevent "lung trouble" which usually means tuberculosis.
A large bullet hung at the throat wards off catarrh, but it must
154 THE POWER DOCTORS
be an old-fashioned bullet of solid lead; the modern bullets
with copper or steel jackets are worthless for this purpose. A
piece of rhubarb root, worn on a string round the neck, will
protect the wearer against the bellyache. It is said that a pair
of crawpappy pincers sewed into a man's clothing has the same
effect.
Dr. C. T. Ryland, of Lexington, Missouri, told me that he
was called to see a sick infant in a family from south Missouri.
The child had what was called "summer complaint," with a high
temperature. Noticing a string of yellow wooden beads around
the baby's neck, Dr. Ryland was told that "them's bodark, to
keep fever away from the brain."
I once met a very old man on the road near Sylamore, Arkan-
sas, wearing a string of large red glass beads. I asked five or
six of his neighbors about it, and they all told me that he wore
the beads as a remedy for nosebleed. "Oh yes, I reckon it works
all right," said one young fellow in answer to my question, "but
I'd ruther have nosebleed as to pack them fool beads all the
time!"
Some Ozarkers believe that epileptic fits may be prevented,
or at least made less violent, if the afflicted person carries a hu-
man tooth in his pocket, but the tooth must be that o/ a person
not related to the patient by ties of blood. It is believed in some
quarters that an epileptic may postpone his attacks by "packin'
a flintrock," especially if he can find a lucky flint with a hole
in it.
Ozark children, in many isolated sections, still wear little
packets of asafetida all winter to protect them from the com-
mon diseases of childhood. When spring comes, with sassafras
tea and other internal prophylactics, the child is permitted to
discard the asafetida. Small boys are sometimes forced to wear
little bags of camphor sewed to their shirts, to prevent their
catching meningitis or infantile paralysis. Others have flat
leather bands or red woolen strings round their necks, or even
dirty socks under their collars to ward off colds and influenza.
THE POWER DOCTORS 155
A little iron wire worn as a necklace, according to some power
doctors, will protect a child from whooping cough. A piece of
black silk around the neck is regarded as "liable to keep off
croup."
Otto Ernest Rayburn says that "in grandmother's day a
mouse's head tied around the baby's neck prevented certain
ills," 6 but I have never been able to learn just what these ills
were, or to get any definite information about this matter. In
one settlement I found the children coming to school with little
round pieces of porous stone sewed into their garments ; it is
said that these stones are taken from the bladders of deer, and
are supposed to protect the wearer against violence and finan-
cial loss as well as diseases.
Many backwoods women wear red yarn strings about their
abdomens. Some say that this is in order to prevent cramps. I
am not sure that this is the true explanation, but it is a fact
that red woolen strings are worn, particularly by young un-
married women.
Some say that the dried skin of a mole, stuck fast to the chest
with honey, will prevent or even cure asthma. I once persuaded
one of my neighbors to try this, but it didn't seem to do him
any good. Women sometimes wear a mole skin, or the dried
foot of a mole, between their breasts in the belief that it pre-
vents cancer.
The best way to avoid getting the mumps is to cut a chip off
an old hog trough, carry it in your pocket, and rub it over your
jaws and throat every day. The adult male Ozarker is afraid
of mumps, because he fears that the disease may "go down" on
him and damage his testicles. Some men think they can prevent
this calamity by smearing the parts with marrow from a hog's
jaw. Other hillmen wear a little sack of salt, tied around the
waist with a string. A country lawyer told me, in all serious-
ness, "I never knew a man who carried salt to have the mumps
go down on him. Probably it's just a coincidence, but just the
e Ozark Country, pp. 253-254.
156 THE POWER DOCTORS
same " he unbuckled his belt, pulled up his shirt, and showed
me the little package fastened around his middle with a neat
cotton band. It is said that when a hillman actually gets the
rnumps he may still prevent the disease from "going down" by
soaking a woolen string with hog manure and tying it round
his neck. But a man in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, tells me that he
gave this measure a fair trial, and "there aint nothin' to it."
In some parts of eastern Oklahoma, when a man comes to the
place where a horse has just been rolling on the ground, he spits
this is supposed to ward off backache or lumbago. I knew a
farmer near Harrison, Arkansas, who was careful to spit in
the road whenever he saw a big woolly worm or caterpillar ; he
said that failure to do this always caused him to have a chill
within twenty-four hours. Mrs. May Kennedy McCord, of
Springfield, Missouri, used to say "kiss a mule, cure a cold, 5 '
but I'm not certain that she meant it to be taken literally.
A big red onion tied to a bedpost is said to prevent the occu-
pants of the bed from catching cold. A famous politician in
Arkansas had an onion fastened to his bedpost as recently as
1937. When I asked him about this he laughed rather sheep-
ishly. "That's just one of Maw's notions," he said, referring to
his mother-in-law. "She lives with us, and she's getting old, and
we try to humor her. Of course, I don't believe in such things
myself."
One often hears hillfolk say that wearing a piece of dog fen-
nel in the left shoe will prevent the wood ticks from biting your
legs.
A great many Ozarkers believe that a live minnow swallowed
by a baby will prevent it from ever having the whooping cough.
Miss Jewell Perriman, Jenkins, Missouri, tells me that this is
not a superstition but a well-known fact, and she has seen it
demonstrated several times. Other hillfolk think that it isn't
necessary for the child to swallow the minnow; they just put it
inside the infant's mouth and pull it out again by a string at-
tached for that purpose. Once, in Washington county, Arkan-
THE POWER DOCTORS 157
sas, I saw a power doctor put a live minnow into a baby's mouth ;
his purpose in doing this was not made clear to me, but the child
did not catch whooping cough. It died about four months later
from some other ailment, which the parents diagnosed as "sum-
mer complaint."
Most backwoods healers believe that night air is poisonous
and advise their patients to shut every door and window tight,
although a large family sleeps in a small cabin. If it were not
for the chinks in their clumsily built shanties, and the draught
of their great chimneys, some of these folk might easily be suf-
focated. Many old-timers are convinced that malaria is some-
how caused by stagnant water, but nearly all of them laugh at
the idea that mosquitoes have anything to do with it.
It is generally believed that chills are caused by eating water-
melons or muskmelons or cucumbers too late in the autumn, and
that it is dangerous to eat any sort of fruit or vegetables out of
season. In one southern Missouri county the relief agency dis-
tributed fine shipped-in carrots in the winter of 1940; the peo-
ple were hungry, too, but I saw bunches of these carrots in the
ditches along the road, where my neighbors had thrown them
away. One farmer gathered up a lot of carrots and fed them to
his pigs, "so's to be sure the childern wouldn't git a-holt of 'em I"
The relief office in the same village gave away a lot of grape-
fruit also, but many of the people had never seen grapefruit be-
fore, and some of them threw the stuff to the pigs rather than
take a chance with it. Several families boiled their grapefruit,
since it never occurred to them that fruit could be eaten raw
in the wintertime.
There is a very general notion in the hill country that the
instrument wjhich caused a wound is still a part of the situation
and must be somehow included in the treatment given the wound
itself. Thus when a mountain man cuts himself accidentally, he
hastens to thrust the offending knife or ax deep into the soil,
believing that this will stop excessive bleeding and make the
wound heal faster.
158 THE POWER DOCTORS
A boy at Harrison, Arkansas, stepped on a nail which passed
entirely through his foot. After his father had dressed the wound
with vinegar he took the boy on a horse and went back to the
place where the accident occurred in order to find the nail. The
father wanted to take the nail home, wash it in kerosene and
put it away in a dry place. "If the nail rusts," said he, "the
wound will fester."
Miss Jewell Perriman, Jenkins, Missouri, tells me that the
people in her neighborhood, if injured by a rusty nail, apply
turpentine to the nail before they put it on the wound. Boys in
some parts of Arkansas carry the nail home and thrust it into
a bar of soap, to the same depth that it was accidentally stuck
into the foot; it is not clear exactly why they do this, but it is
evidently connected with the idea of preventing rust, which is
associated in the hillman's mind with tetanus, or lockjaw.
In dressing gunshot wounds, doctors are often requested by
the patient to put a little salve or antiseptic on the bullet which
caused the injury, in order to prevent blood poisoning. I knew
one man who always carried the bullet which had been cut out
of his leg ; whenever he felt a twinge of pain, he would take the
bullet out of his wallet and put a drop of skunk oil on it. He
laughed a little every time he did this, and never admitted that
he believed in the efficacy of such a procedure.
Something of the same sort is shown in the treatment of snake
bites. Several miles west of Hot Springs, Arkansas, I came upon
some small boys. They had built a rousing fire by the roadside
and were burning a large copperhead. This snake had bitten
one of the boys, whose leg was already badly swollen. I asked
why they didn't do something for the boy, but they replied
that their chief concern was to burn the snake "plumb to ashes."
As soon as the body of the snake was entirely consumed, the
boys told me, they were going to take the injured lad to the
doctor in a nearby village.
I have known educated hillfolk, who depend upon regular
physicians for ordinary ailments, surreptitiously to consult a
THE POWER DOCTORS 159
backwoods magician when bitten by a poisonous serpent. Dr.
W. 0. Cralle, Springfield, Missouri, tells of an old woman who
warned him never to go to an M.D. in case of snake bite. The
doctor might fix it up temporarily, she said, but the bite would
always hurt on the anniversary of the day it occurred, so long
as the patient lived. An old-time healer, on the other hand,
would cure it in his own fashion, and it would never cause any
further trouble.
Miss Jewell Perriman, of Jenkins, Missouri, tells me that her
Uncle Bill had a secret method of curing snake bite, and people
came from miles around for treatment. Uncle Bill belonged to a
family of which it was said "them folks don't kill snakes." This
is very unusual in the Ozarks, where most people do kill every
snake they see. When a large copperhead was found in the
Perriman house, Uncle Bill caught it with the tongs, carried it
out into the orchard, and released it unharmed. His cure for
snake bite was known in the family for at least a hundred years.
Uncle Bill had it from his father and told it to his eldest son.
The son was an educated fellow, an M.D. from a great university,
and he did not believe in this magic stuff. So the young doctor
never used the family treatment, but he did not laugh at it, and
he never told it to anybody, so far as is known. The secret is
lost now, for Uncle Bill is long dead, and his son died suddenly
without issue. All that Miss Perriman knows of the snake-bite
cure is that the snake must not be injured, and that Uncle Bill
had a strip of ancient buckskin in which he tied certain knots as
part of the treatment. She showed me the buckskin. It was about
half an inch wide, perhaps twelve inches long, carefully rounded
at the ends. Three knots had been tied in it, one in the middle and
one at either end.
Another Ozark youth, a member of a clan which doesn't kill
snakes, was startled into shooting a water moccasin one day,
when he was fishing. Immediately the boy began to see moccasins
everywhere. He shot and killed about thirty in two hours and
then became a little frightened, as there seemed to be some-
160 THE POWER DOCTORS
thing supernatural in the sudden appearance of so many poi-
sonous serpents. When he told his father what had occurred,
the old man just looked at him solemnly and said nothing at all.
That boy was terribly nervous for several weeks, and he never
killed another snake as long as he lived. He would not admit
that he was in any degree superstitious but said several times
that there was "something funny" about his family when it
came to "messin' with snakes."
Some backwoods Christians of the wilder Holy Roller cults
adherents of the so-called "new ground religion," "pokeweed
gospel," or "lightnin'-bug churches" do not believe in doc-
tors and will riot take any sort of medicine. Their preachers say
that the Word is ag'in physicians, and quote James 5:14-15:
"Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the
church ; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in
the name of the Lord ; and the prayer of faith shall save the
sick."
I have seen seven or eight backwoods preachers kneeling
about a sick man's bed, shouting the gibberish they call "the
unknown tongue." As soon as these fellows knew that I was
present they stopped yelling, since they believe that the pres-
ence of an unbeliever breaks the charm. They claim some re-
markable cures of inoperable cancer and the like. I know per-
sonally of cases where they have attempted to raise the dead;
in one instance they "wooled the corpse around" for several
hours, even pulling the body off the bed by their frenzied "laying
on of hands."
In Taney county, Missouri, I knew an old woman who was
very ill and sent word to the nearest meetin' that she wanted
the preachers to pray for her, but did not want them to come
to her house because the family was opposed to the "pokeberry
religion." Several of the preachers knelt down in the church,
took bottles of holy oil from their pockets, poured a little of
the stuff on a handkerchief, and prayed over it in the unknown
tongue. The old woman applied the handkerchief to her ab-
THE POWER DOCTORS 161
domen next the skin and wore it for several days ; then she an-
nounced that she was miraculously healed, and the preachers
claimed to have effected the cure at a distance of two and one-
half miles, without even seeing the patient. The woman died a
few weeks later.
In cases of difficult childbirth the "buck-brush parsons"
sometimes try to help, and their prayers are so loud as to drown
out the screams of the wretched woman ; this scandalizes the
conventional midwives, who feel that men should not be present
at such times.
Rex Thomas, newspaperman of Lamar, Missouri, told me
about the Rev. A. D. Etterman, an evangelist who was "run out"
of Newport, Missouri, in October, 1934. The villagers claimed
that Etterman's family spread the itch through the whole com-
munity, so that the public school had to be closed for two
weeks. It was said that Etterman could cure leprosy by super-
natural means, but the lowly scabies was apparently beyond
his powers.
These Pentecostal fanatics do not patronize the backwoods
herbalists or power doctors or granny-women, at least not
openly. Sometimes it may be that a Holy Roller weakens under
the lash of pain and visits a nonreligious healer in secret. But
when a "new ground" religionist calls a doctor he generally in-
sists upon a licensed M.D. from town. Physicians in the Ozark
communities tell me that when they are called to a Holy Roller
cabin they usually find somebody at the point of death. "Such
people don't want treatment," one doctor said grimly, "they
just want me to examine the patient, so that I can sign a death
certificate !"
8. Courtship and
Marriage
In pioneer days it appears that a woman's
[least attempt to make herself attractive
by artificial means was regarded with
suspicion. There are places in the Ozarks even now where a
married woman who uses "face whitenin* " is looked down upon
by her respectable neighbors. In the remotest settlements now-
adays, however, young girls manage to get "store-boughten"
cosmetics cheap powder, lipstick, and perfume. A few years
ago the mothers of these girls used flour or corn-starch for face-
whitenin', and I have seen a woman take an artificial rose off an
old hat, dampen it with her tongue, and rub the dye on her cheeks
by way of rouge. The old-timers tell of a weed called cow slob-
ber, too, with a red sap which gave color to many a hill-country
belle's cheek.
There are many odd folk beliefs connected with backwoods
beauty treatments. Dew, or dew and buttermilk, or various mix-
tures of honey and buttermilk are recognized remedies for
roughened skin and pimples on the face and neck. Rain water
caught on the first day of June is supposed to clear up muddy
complexions and eliminate freckles. The fresh blood of a chicken
that of a black pullet in particular is also said to remove
freckles and make the skin white and creamy. Fresh tomato
juice is a very fine bleach for darkened skins, although some
girls prefer to rub their arms and faces with cucumber pulp
just before going to bed. Mrs. Addah Matthews, of Monett,
Missouri, says that Ozark girls used to apply sassafras tea to
their faces, in the belief that it would benefit their complexions.
A few years ago, girls came to believe that a poultice of
COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE 163
fresh cow dung removes freckles, makes the skin soft and fresh,
and greatly improves the feminine complexion. A pretty woman
in Crane, Missouri, told me that she and her chum made thick
masks of cow dung and wore them for hours at a time. "It
drawed up my face," she said, "till I couldn't hardly move a
eye-winker !"
The dirty water from a blacksmith's tub, in which hot horse-
shoes have been tempered, is famous as a lotion for a spotted or
muddy complexion. Many girls try to remove freckles by rub-
bing the face with a boy baby's diaper, wet with fresh urine.
Some of the most popular treatments are kept secret. Once I
made some complimentary remark to a girl about her com-
plexion, and she started to sing the praises of a new cosmetic
she had brewed out of beet tops, when suddenly she stopped short
with the remark that if she told anybody the spell would be
broken and the charm wouldn't work.
It is proverbial that the winds of March are bad for the
complexion :
March winds and May sun
Make clothes white and maids dun.
Many mountain women say that to eat chicken hearts, espe-
cially raw chicken hearts, will make any girl good looking; I
know one poor damsel who ate them for years, but without any
benefit so far as I could see. May Stafford Hilburn says that
in her section of the Ozarks the girl must swallow the chicken
heart not only raw but whole! 1 In Cassville, Missouri, a
woman told me that to swallow a raw chicken heart at one gulp
may not make a girl beautiful, but it will render her sexually
attractive, so that "she can git whoever she wants."
The touch of a dead man's hand is popularly supposed to dis-
courage moles, blackheads, enlarged pores, and other facial
blemishes. I have seen a little girl, perhaps three years old,
dragged into a village undertaking parlor and "tetched," in
i Magazine (September, 1988), p. 21.
164 COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE
the belief that a large red birthmark on the child's face might
thus be removed.^
A girl can cure her chapped or roughened lips by kissing the
middle bar of a five-rail fence, but it is well to put a bit of lard
or tallow on the lips also, according to my informants.
Most country girls have their ears pierced for earrings, but
this should be done when peach trees are in bloom, and when
"the sign is right/' If the ears are pierced at any other time, the
openings are likely to become infected ; one girl told me her ears
got so sore she "couldn't hardly pull the strings through with-
out hollerin' !"
The Ozark women have several outlandish treatments for fall-
ing hair, but the details of these are supposed to be kept secret,
as to tell anybody will break the charm. I have been unable to
learn anything definite about this business, beyond the fact
that one course of treatment takes forty-nine days and requires
large amounts of fresh urine, which is carried in bottles and
buckets from all over the neighborhood to the house of the
woman undergoing the treatment.
In Washington county, Arkansas, there are women who claim
to cure baldness, or at least to arrest falling hair, with a salve
made from tallow mixed with the scrapings of old harness, pref-
erably that which has been worn by a white mule. Wild-cherry
bark makes a fine hair tonic and hair restorer. Sage tea is not
only popular as a hair dressing but is also said to restore the
natural color of hair which is turning gray. A tea made from
peach-tree leaves, with a little sulphur added, is said to be a
sure cure for dandruff. Sap from wild grape vines is highly
recommended as a hair tonic.
I am told that in pioneer days some women made a curling
fluid by steeping flaxseed in hot water, but just how this was
supposed to work I do not know. Some say that it was applied
to the hair just before the rag curlers were put on. "We didn't
have no curlin'-irons in them days," an old woman told me.
The girl who cuts her hair at the time of the new moon will
COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE 165
see it grow rapidly and luxuriantly. Hair cut in the dark of
the moon is likely to lose its luster, or even to become gray pre-
maturely. A woman's hair should never be cut in March this
makes it dull and lifeless and sometimes causes headaches which
persist until midnight on March 81.
A mountain girl of my acquaintance placed a lock of her
hair under a stone in a running stream, believing that the water
would make her hair glossy and attractive. Another way to
promote the growth of hair is to bury a "twist" of it under the
roots of a white walnut tree, in the light of the moon.
To burn combings, or hair which has been cut off, is forbid-
den to Ozark girls, as it would make their hair brittle. Combings
should be buried in the ground. Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Mahnkey,
of Mincy, Missouri, tells me that one must never throw comb-
ings out of doors if a bird should use even one hair in building
a nest, the original owner of the hair is likely to go insane.
Others say that to have your hair in a bird's nest won't neces-
sarily drive you crazy, but it will cause a series of terrible
headaches.
Children are often told that eating bread crusts makes the
hair curly, and some parents contend that a diet of carrots also
causes hair to curl. Most mountain folk feel that curly hair is
somehow more attractive than straight, so it may be that these
sayings are intended primarily to induce children to eat bread
crusts and carrots. One often hears that if a straight-haired
girl shaves her head, the new hair will "come in curly," but I
have never known anybody to give it a trial.
It is always bad luck to part one's hair with a comb that has
touched the head of a corpse; to do so may cause the hair to
fall out.
Country women in the Ozarks seldom put water on their hair
they prefer to dry-clean it with cornmeal. But when it is
necessary to wet one's hair, it is best not to use a comb until
the hair is perfectly dry. To comb wet hair always makes it
coarse, according to the granny-women.
166 COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE
Nearly all of the old-timers disliked to comb their hair by
artificial light. I have seen a man at least seventy years old
hobble out into his back yard and stand in the moonlight while
he combed his long white hair, rather than comb it in front of
a mirror in the kitchen illuminated by a kerosene lamp.
A young woman should never comb her hair at night, under
any condition, since to do this is said to "lower a gal's nature"
that is, make her less passionate sexually. That is the mean-
ing of the old sayin' :
Comb your hair after dark,
Comb sorry into your old man's heart.
Many hillmen still believe in love powders and potions, and
this belief is encouraged by the country druggists, who sell a
perfumed mixture of milk sugar and flake whiting at enormous
profits. This stuff is dissolved in a girl's coffee or fed to her in
candy and & said to be quite efficacious. Many mountain dam-
sels carry love charms consisting of some pinkish, soaplike ma-
terial, the composition of which I have been unable to discover ;
the thing is usually enclosed in a carved peach stone or cherry
pit and worn on a string round the neck, or attached to an
elastic garter. I recall a girl near Lanagan, Missouri, who wore
a peach stone love-charm on one garter and a rabbit's foot
fastened to the other.
f Surreptitiously touching the back of a man's head is said to
be a sure way of arousing his sexual passionsj\md every moun-
tain girl knows that if she puts a drop of her menstrual fluid
into a man's liquor he is certain to fall madly in love with her.
.Whiskey in which her fingernail trimmings have been soaked is
said to have a very similar effectAThese beliefs are taken so
seriously in the Ozarks that the victim of a love-charm or philter
is not held morally responsible for his actions, and many a de-
serted wife is comforted by the reflection that her man did not
leave of his own free will but was "cunjured off."
Ozark girls sometimes carry little wasp nests in the belief
COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE 167
that they somehow attract men. These objects are usually
pinned to the lady's undergarments if she wears any under-
garments. It is said that if a girl steals the band from a man's
hat and makes a garter of it, the original owner will fall in love
with her at once. Yellow garters are very popular, as they
attract men to the wearer and even render her lovers faithful.
For a married woman to wear yellow garters is not so good,
however it indicates that she is interested^ in men other than
her husband.)Many a mountain girl conceals dried turkey bones
about the room in which she meets her lover, or even secretes
them in her clothing, in the belief that they will render him more
amorous. I once heard some village loafers "greening" a young
chap because some turkey bones had been found behind the
cushions of his Ford, the supposition being that they had been
placed there by women who had ridden with him.
Mountain girls sometimes carry the beard of a wild turkey
gobbler concealed about their clothing. Rose O'Neill, of Day,
Missouri, asked a neighbor about this once and was told that
"we use it to clean the comb with." Probably the gobbler's beard
does make a satisfactory comb cleaner, but there is no doubt
whatever that some backwoods damsels regard it as a love
charm.
A plant called yarrow, or milfoil (Achillea millefolium), is
used in making love potions. The same is said to be true of
dodder, also called love vine or angel's hair. Women in north-
west Arkansas tell me that the roots of the lady's-slipper or
moccasin flower (Cypripedium) contain a powerful aphrodisiac.
The leaves and stems of mistletoe are made into some kind of
"love medicine," but the whole matter is very secret. I have on
two occasions seen women boiling big kettles of mistletoe out of
doors but was unable to get any details of the procedure.
(If a girl has quarreled with her lover, she may get him back
by taking a needle and drawing a little blood from the third
finger of her left hand. Using the needle as a pen, she writes her
initials and his in blood on an ironwood chip, draws three circles
168 COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE
around the letters, and buries the chip in the ground. The
recreant boy friend will be hangin' round again in three days,
or less.
The boys in northwestern Arkansas make a love medicine
from the web of a wild gander's foot, dried and reduced to
powder. Put a pinch of this in a girl's coffee, and she will not
only fall in love with you at once but will be faithful to you as
long as she Jives. This is somehow connected, in the hillman's
mind, with the belief that wild geese mate but once.
By cleaning her fingernails on Saturday, and muttering a
mysterious old sayin' at the same time, a girl can force her lover
to visit her on Sunday. When a boy says "my gal fixed her
fingernails yesterday," he means that he is going to see her and
implies that he does so rather reluctantly,
f If a girl puts salt on the fire for seven consecutive mornings
it will bring her absent lover home, whether he wants to come
cr not.NOrfshe may place her shoes together on the floor at
right angles, so that the toe of one touches the middle of the
other, and recite:
^ .
When I my true love want
I put my shoes in the shape
This is said to be especially effective when the errant swain is
married or has become entangled with a married woman.
I once knew two sisters in Jasper county, Missouri, who
went far out in the woods and bent several twigs on a pawpaw
tree, tying them fast in the bent position with twisted locks of
their own hair. Relatives of these girls told me that this had
something to do with an unsatisfactory love affair in which
both girls were involved, but I was unable to learn anything
definite about the matter. It was not the sort of thing that a
mere acquaintance could safely investigate.
In rural Arkansas the backwoods girls tie little pieces of cloth
to the branches of certain trees usually pawpaw or hawthorn,
sometimes redbud or ironwood. I have seen five of these little
COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE 169
bundles in a single pawpaw tree. I have untied several and
examined them carefully; there was nothing in them that I
could see, just little pieces of cloth, doubtless torn from old
dresses or petticoats. The natives say they are love charms,
but just how they work I do not know. No woodsman that I
have ever known would think of touching one of these objects,
and I have often been warned that it is very bad luck to "monkey
with such as that."
In some localities it is said that a man hides the dried tongue
of a turtle dove in a girl's cabin this makes her fall madly in
love with him, and she can't deny him anything. I was told of
a case in which a girl's superstitious parents searched the cabin
for days, trying to find the tongue which they believed must be
hidden there. The neighbors laughed about this, and the girl
herself said that turtle doves' tongues had nothing to do with
the case, but the parents still believed the old story. They never
did find the dove's tongue, however.
A girl can take a needle which has been stuck into a dead
body, cover it with dirt in which a corpse has been laid, and
wrap the whole thing in a cloth cut from a winding sheet ; this
is supposed to be a very powerful love charm, and a woman who
owns such a thing can make any man fall in love with her. A
needle which has been used to make a shroud is useful, too. If a
girl thrusts such a needle into her lover's footprint in her own
dooryard, he is forced to remain with her whether he wants to
or not. If he leaves the neighborhood he will get sick, and if
he stays away long enough he will die.
Girls in love are supposed to have an inordinate appetite for
cucumber pickles. In the eighties boys used to leave little boxes
of fruit and candies at their sweethearts' doorsteps on the eve
of February 14. For a boy to include a pickle was considered
very daring, and the old folks said that a girl who ate one of
these Valentine pickles was henceforth unable to resist the boy
who gave it to her. Some old-timers, however, insist that pickles
were traditionally regarded as a cure for love sickness rather
170 COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE
than a love charm or an aphrodisiac. According to this in-
terpretation, the pickle in a Valentine box was no more than
a humorous reference to a rival, or to some previous love affair.
Negroes in Arkansas make and sell charms to keep husbands
constant, to bring back wandering lovers, to help in seducing
girls, and so on. They are little cloth bags containing feathers,
hair, blood, graveyard dirt, salt, and sometimes human bones.
Some low-class white people buy these and carry them. They are
called charms, conjures, hands, jacks or jujus. Many white
people laugh at this "nigger business," but I have known edu-
cated white men who were careful to avoid touching these
charms. It was a dealer in jujus, in Little Rock, Arkansas, who
told me that a man infatuated with an unworthy woman could
cure himself by smearing the fresh blood of a male deer over
his genitals.
A hillman whose wife is "triflin' on him" is sometimes per-
suaded that he can make everything right by going into the
woods at midnight and boring a hole in the crotch of a pawpaw
tree. This done, he mutters a secret Biblical quotation, drives
a stout wooden peg into the auger hole, and walks away without
looking back at the tree. The hole behind the peg may contain
a wad of human hair, dried blood, fingernail parings, 'a piece
of a woman's undergarment, and some unidentified material
resembling beeswax. This method of curbing marital infidelity
is known as the "pawpaw conjure" and is said to be of Negro
origin.
It is generally believed that a man who seduces little girls
is likely to have a curse laid upon his family, and his own chil-
dren are particularly liable to the same outrage that he has
perpetrated upon the daughters of others.
Marriage is still regarded as a serious matter in the Ozarks,
and there are many singular superstitions connected with the
choice of a mate. The typical hillman is determined to marry a
virgin at any cost, and is firmly convinced that he can detect
virginity at a glance. The theory is that every female child
COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE 171
has a tiny cleft or depression in the end of her nose, and that
this depression immediately disappears after sexual intercourse
is effected.
There are several strange old notions about the use of mir-
rors in testing female virtue. One of these is reflected in a song
still popular in the backwoods :
Mamma, mamma, have you heard?
Papa's goin' to buy me a mockm'-bird !
If the mockin'-bird won't sing
Papa's goin' to buy me a golden ring.
If the golden ring is brass
Papa's goin' to buy me a lookin'-glass.
If the lookin'-glass don't shine
Papa's goin' to shoot that beau of mine !
A young woman near Mena, Arkansas, who repeated these
verses, explained the final stanza by saying that the lookin'-
glass "shines" only for virgins and virtuous wives.
Many hill women are firmly convinced that a man's penis is
exactly three times as long as his nose, and a girl who "keeps
company" with a very long-nosed man is subjected to the good-
natured raillery of her friends. There is an old saying to the
effect that a girl with a small mouth has a small, tight vagina.
Teeth set wide apart indicate a passionate, sensual nature. Cold
hands are believed to be associated with a warm heart and are
often regarded as a sure sign that one is in love. A woman with
very small ears is likely to be miserly and petulant. If a girl's
second toe is longer than the big one, she will try to bully her
lover. When a woman has the habit of resting her thumb inside
her clenched hand, everybody knows that she will be ruled
absolutely by her husband, while if her thumb is habitually
extruded the man who marries her will probably be henpecked.
To tell if a person is jealous, hold a buttercup under his chin ;
172 COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE
if the yellow color of the flower is reflected, so that the skin
looks yellow, he's jealous. There is some trick of detecting
jealousy by holding a red-hot poker near the face; a little boy
lost one of his eyes because of this foolishness at the Cherry
Grove schoolhouse near Lamar, Missouri, in 1938.
To speak of a person as white-livered, in some parts of Amer-
ica, is to call him a coward. In the Ozarks, however, white-livered
generally means oversexed. When a lively, buxom, good-looking
woman loses several husbands by death, it is often said that her
inordinate sexual passion has killed 'em off, and she is referred
to as a white-livered widder. Usually it is only a figure of speech,
but there are people who actually believe that a "high nature"
is correlated with white spots on the liver, and that this con-
dition has often been revealed by postmortem examination.
There are many ways of determining whether or not one's
sweetheart is faithful. If the fire which a man kindles burns
brightly, he knows that his sweetheart is true to him, but if it
smolders, she is likely to prove unfaithful. As a further test,
he may go into a clearing and bend down a mullein stalk so
that it points toward her cabin ; if she loves him the stalk grows
up again, but if she loves another it will die. Mrs. Addah Mat-
thews, Monett, Missouri, says that "a girl used to name' a mul-
lein stalk, then bend the stalk toward her fellow's house; if it
grew bent in that direction he loved her." Sometimes the girl
puts a bit of dodder or love vine on a growing weed ; if it flour-
ishes, her lover is faithful, and if it withers he is not to be
trusted. Or she may pluck a hair from her head and draw it
between her fingers if it curls he loves her, if it remains straight
he does not. Another girl picks a cocklebur, names it for her
lover, and throws it against her skirt; if it sticks, she knows
that her lover is true to her, if it doesn't stick she thinks he is
false.
A hill girl often names a match for a boy whom she admires
and then lights the match ; if it burns to the end without break-
COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE 178
ing, she is assured that the boy loves her. My neighbor's daugh-
ters once used up half a box of matches in this search for
knowledge, an extravagance which was harshly rebuked by the
frugal parents. Another common trick is for a girl to light a
match and hold it straight up; if the blackened head turns
toward her boy friend or her boy friend's home, it is a sign that
he loves her. But if the match points in some other direction,
she has reason to doubt his fidelity.
If a ring suddenly breaks upon a person's finger, without
any obvious reason for its breaking, it means that his or her
loved one is unfaithful ; some say that it means the absent one
has committed an act of infidelity at the exact moment when
the ring cracks.
To find out if her sweetheart loves her, a girl hangs a Bible
up with a string and repeats aloud: "Whither thou goest, I
will go. Where thou lodgest, I will lodge. Thy people shall be
my people, thy God my God." Then she shouts the name of her
boy friend Jim or Bill or Alec or whatever it is. If the Bible
turns on the string so that the edge points toward the speaker,
it is a sign that the boy loves her. Some say it means that they
will marry.
There are many ways in which a mountain girl may learn the
identity and characteristics of her future husband. She may
put a live snail in a glass fruit jar over night; the initials of
the man she is to marry will be outlined in the snail's slimy track.
An old woman once told me that if a girl counts nine stars each
night for nine consecutive nights, on the ninth night she will
inevitably dream of her husband-to-be. A simpler method is to
stare very hard at the brightest star in sight and wink three
times ; this produces the dream on the first night and gets the
same result with much less expenditure of time and energy. Some
girls divine their future marital adventures by what is called
cancellation; they write down their own names with those of
their boy friends, and cancel out identical letters, shouting
174 COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE
"false, true, false, true*' the while. This cancellation business
is a bit more complicated than appears at first sight, and I have
never been able to understand exactly how it works.
Down south of Hot Springs, Arkansas, they tell me that a
girl goes out in the woods after a rain and "repeats a verse"
meaning a passage from the Bible. Then she reaches behind her
without looking and lifts up a flat stone. Under the stone she'll
find a hair, and it will be the same color as that of the man she
is destined to marry.
A woman at Zinc, Arkansas, says that when a girl hears a
dove and sees the new moon at the same instant, she repeats this
verse :
Bright moon, clear moon,
Bright and fair,
Lift up your right foot
There'll be a hair.
Then she takes off her right shoe and finds in it a hair like that
of her future husband.
Mrs. Effa M. Wilson, Verona, Missouri, has a slightly dif-
ferent version. She says that when you hear the first dove coo
in the spring, sit down wherever you are and take off your right
stocking. In the heel of the stocking you'll find the hair, and
it will be exactly the color of your future husband's hair. A
lady in Marshfield, Missouri, tried this, and to her amazement
she did find a hair in her stocking. It was a blond hair, though,
and she married a black-haired man.
Sometimes a mountain damsel boils an egg very hard, then
removes the yolk and fills the cavity with salt. Just before bed-
time she eats this salted egg. In the night, according to the old
story, she will dream that somebody fetches her a gourd filled
with water. The man who brings her the water is destined to
be her husband. It is surprising how many young women have
tried this, and how many feel that there may be something in it.
A girl near Clinton, Arkansas, tells me that she has only to
write the names of nine boys on a slip of paper and put the
COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE 175
paper between her breasts at bedtime; she is sure to dream of
the one who will be her husband.
The girl who looks at the new moon over her right shoulder
and repeats :
New moon, new moon, do tell me
Who my own true lover will be,
The color of his hair, the clothes that he will wear
And the happy day he will wed me,
will dream of her future mate that night.
They tell me that sometimes a girl writes the names of six
boys on six slips of paper and puts them under her pillow. When
she awakes in the night, she pulls out one at random and throws
it on the floor. She does not look at it until daylight, when it
will be found to bear the name of her future husband. The girl
who lights a lamp to look at the slip before morning will have
very bad luck and perhaps get no husband at all.
If a girl finds a pod containing nine peas, she hangs it up
over the door. The first eligible man to walk under the pod will
be her future husband.
The first time a country girl sleeps in a strange room, she
names the four corners for four boys of her acquaintance. The
first corner that she looks into when she awakes bears the name
of the boy she will marry.
In some sections, when a backwoods girl sees the new moon, she
names a boy pronounces his name aloud. Then she watches
for the boy, day after day. If he happens to have his face toward
her, the first time she sees him, she thinks that they will someday
be sweethearts. If his back is toward her, she feels that there is
nothing to do but forget him.
The first day of May is important to girls who are looking
for information about their future mates. If a girl gets up
early on the morning of May 1, goes to the spring, and breaks
a guinea's egg into a cup, she'll see the face or the initials of
her husband-to-be in the water. A girl who looks obliquely into
a mirror when she first wakes up on May Day will see the re-
176 COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE
flection, or at least initials or letters forming the name, of the
man who is to be her mate.
A maiden lady who wants to see her future husband goes to
.a well at noon on May 1 and holds a mirror so as to reflect the
light down into the darkness. Some girls say that they have
actually seen their mates-to-be in the water. Others are afraid
to try this stunt, because sometimes a girl doesn't see any man,
but an image of herself in a coffin, which means that she'll die
before another May Day. If a girl sees nothing at all in the
water, she is very likely to be an old maid.
A woman in Christian county, Missouri, used to do the same
trick with a gold ring in a glass of water. She set the glass in
front of a mirror and gazed fixedly at the reflection of the ring.
I was told of another maiden who looked into this ring-mirror
gadget and saw a new-made grave by the river; everybody
thought it meant that the poor girl would die soon, but she lived
to be nearly seventy.
On the last night of April, a girl may wet a handkerchief
and hang it out in a cornfield. Next morning the May sun dries
it, and the wrinkles are supposed to show the initial of the man
she is to marry. Or she may hold a bottle of water up to the
light on the morning of May 1, just at sunrise, and see apicture
of outline of the boy who is to be her husband.
Sometimes a widow gets up before dawn on May Day and
hangs a horseshoe over her door. The first creature to enter
will have a complexion and hair color like that of her future
mate. There is a whole cycle of funny stories based on this
belief, tales of possums, rats, snakes, or even skunks wandering
in, and so on.
Some girls hunt birds' nests on May 1. If the first nest a girl
finds on that day has eggs in it, she'll be married soon; if the
nest is empty, she will be an old maid. "But what if there are
young birds in the nest?" I asked the girl who told me about
this. She cast down her eyes, blushed, and made no answer. Her
mother overheard the question, and called the girl into the
COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE 177
house at once. I have never been able to learn what happens
to the girl who finds young birds in the nest.
Here is another way of looking into a mountain maiden's
future: take three bowls, one containing clean water, one full
of dirty water, one empty. Blindfold the girl, lead her into the
room, and ask her to select one of the bowls. If she picks the
clean water, she'll be happily married; if she picks the dirty
water, she will soon be a widow; if she picks the empty bowl,
she'll be an old maid.
One may always ascertain the future bridegroom's occupa-
tion by counting the buttons on a girl's new dress rich man,
poor man, beggarman, thief, doctor, lawyer, merchant, chief
but this does not seem to be taken seriously except by very small
girls. If a little girl is always getting her apron wet, when she
washes the dishes, it is a sign that she'll marry a drunkard.
The woman who finds a broken feather or a crooked twig in
her hair will marry a most unsatisfactory man some say that
her husband will be a cripple.
If a girls wets her nightdress, hangs it before the fireplace
to dry, and goes to bed stark naked in a room by herself, she
is sure to see her future mate before morning. The story is that
his image appears as soon as the nightdress is dry enough to
be turned ; he walks into the room, turns the nightdress around,
and walks out again. There are many stories about this "con-
jure," some of them a bit ribald.
Or a girl may urinate on the sleeve of a man's shirt and hang
it up between her bed and the fireplace. In this case her future
husband is forced to appear in the night and move the shirt
so that it will not burn. "He aint really there, of course," one
woman told me,. "She just dreams it."
Some hillfolk say that a girl can call up a phantom of the
man she is to marry by wrapping a lock of hair with some of
her fingernail clippings in a green leaf and thrusting them into
the ashes in the fireplace. Then she sits down before the fire.
When the hair and fingernails begin to get warm, the ghostly
378 COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE
appearance of her future husband is supposed to rescue them
from the fire. Sometimes several girls try this at once. The
door must be left open, and everyone must maintain absolute
silence.
In some sections of Arkansas, the girls "set a dumb supper,"
by making a pone of cornmeal and salt, in complete silence.
Each girl must take her turn at stirring the meal, each must
shift the pone as it bakes ; each must place a piece of the bread
on her own plate, and another on the plate next hers at the
table. When this is done, the girls open the doors and windows,
then sit down silently and bow their heads. All during the bak-
ing, the wind has grown stronger, and by this time there should
be a regular gale blowing through the house. Often the lights
are blown out. The phantom husbands are supposed to enter
in silence. Each girl is supposed to recognize the man who sits
down beside her. If she sees nobody, it means she will never
marry. If she sees a black figure, without recognizable features,
it means that she will die within a year. Many people still take
this business seriously enough to forbid their daughters to
trifle with it. Some parents say it aint Christian and smells of
witchcraft, while others object to such foolishness because it
sometimes frightens nervous girls into hysteria.
An old woman in Washington county, Arkansas, told me that
when she was a girl they always walked backward while cooking
and serving a dumb supper, and measured everything by thim-
blefuls instead of by spoonfuls or cupfuls. According to this
version of the tale, nobody expects to see an apparition enter
the room, no extra plates are set for ghostly visitors, and there
is no supernatural wind to blow out the lights. Each girl sits
down in silence and eats her tiny portion of food, then bows
her head over the empty plate. If all goes well, she sees the
outline of her future husband's face in the plate, comparable to
the figures seen by crystal gazers and the like.
Otto Ernest Rayburn, of Eureka Springs, Arkansas, says
that in his neighborhood early May was the only proper season
COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE 179
for a dumb supper; Rayburn's informants seemed to regard
the ritual as more or less of a joke, but the old-timers that I
have interviewed were very serious about it, even a little fright-
ened. May Stafford Hilburn, apparently referring to the region
about Jefferson City, Missouri, mentions the dumb supper as
an old-fashioned custom "to hasten the culmination of a bud-
ding romance through the mystic rites thus performed." 2 I am
not certain just what this means, but Mrs. Hilburn's description
calls for midnight, absolute silence, walking backward and so
on, just like the dumb-supper ritual in other sections.
In Cedar county, Missouri, the same sort of function was
called a "dummy" supper. Working in absolute silence, walking
backward and looking over her left shoulder, each girl placed
a chair at the table and set out dishes, knives, and forks as if
for a meal, except that the dishes were empty. This done, the
girls took their places behind the chairs and stood with bowed
heads. The idea was that after a short period of silent concen-
tration the wraith or spirit of each girl's husband-to-be would
appear for a moment in the chair she had prepared for him.
One spoken word, a laugh, a smile, or even a frivolous thought
on this solemn occasion was supposed to break the charm.
There have been cases in which overwrought damsels persuaded
themselves that they really saw ghostly figures seated at the
"dummy table." One old woman assured me that the phantom
husband was visible to all of the girls about the table, but the
general opinion is that he appeared only to the damsel who
stood directly behind his chair, and who was destined to become
his wife.
Mrs. C. P. Mahnkey, of Mincy, Missouri, tells a good story
about the dumb-supper ceremony. She says that it is not fiction,
but a tale that was told and believed in Taney county, Mis-
souri, when she was a girl. Here is the story in Mrs. Mahnkey's
own words, as published in the White River Leader, Branson,
Missouri, Jan. 4, 1934:
2 Missouri Magazine (October, 1933), p. 14.
180 COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE
A dear friend of mother's, a plump and jolly woman, comforting
and reposeful, not one capable of harboring such strange and weird
beliefs, told the story of the dumb supper, so vividly, so impressively,
that I never forgot. She and mother were quilting and as the story
progressed, and she would bend her face to bite off her thread, she
got in the way of giving a cautious glance over her shoulder, and
before the tale had ended, I, too, was giving rather awed glances out
into the long, darksome hall.
She was talking as if she had been present, or as if she had in-
timately known the parties engaged in this supernatural feast. It
seemed the family were away for the night, and the grown girls, left
in charge of the home, had invited in some neighbor girls to keep
them company, so a dumb supper was proposed. This meant, that in
utter silence, and every step taken, to be made backwards, the table
was to be laid for a guest, who would come in at midnight, and who
was to be the future husband of the girl at whose plate he sat down.
The table was only set for one, as it seemed at the test, only one girl
was brave enough to thus put her fortune to the trial.
The others watched her in fascinated silence, as she stepped
quickly, if awkwardly, about her task, in the big low ceilinged kitchen.
She placed a peculiar knife at the side of the mysterious guest's plate,
with a roguish smile at her friends. A sharpbladed knife, set into a
piece of deer horn, for one handle.
In utter silence they waited, until the old clock slowly droned out
the 12 strokes of midnight, when to their terror, the door was dashed
open, a tall form advanced, with swift noiseless steps, and then an
icy wind blew out the light, and one of the horrified girls screamed.
But one braver than the rest, closed the door and lighted the lamp.
No spectral visitor, they were alone, but the maiden who had set the
table, pointed with white face and shaking hands, the peculiar old
knife was not there.
Later, this girl did marry a stranger, who had come, as a visiting
cousin, to the home of a nearby neighbor. And they seemed to be very
happy, although the man was very quiet, even taciturn.
One day the girl's mother, going across the ridge to visit her, found
the little cabin strangely cold and forbidding, and hurried in, to
find her daughter lying as if dead, with a knife thrust into her breast.
When at last help had been summoned, and the old backwoods
doctor, able surgeon was he, too, brought her back to consciousness,
shudderingly she told the story.
In a moment of girlish confidence she had told the story of the
COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE 181
dumb supper, and the strange guest, "as tall as you/' she had said,
and he had listened, in sinister silence* Then he went to an old leather
valise he always kept locked, unlocked it, took something in his hand
and said to her coldly, "And you are the one. You are that witch. That
night I walked through hell," and thrust the knife into her breast, and
ran from the house. He was never seen again, and the knife was the
same old peculiar knife with the deer horn handle and the keen blade,
that the thoughtless girl had laid when so careless and gay, she had
set the dumb supper.
When a man has asked a girl to marry him, and she cannot
decide whether to have- the fellow or not, the old women some-
times advise her to "leave it to the cat." In this procedure she
takes three hairs from a cat's fail, wraps them in white paper,
and puts the package under her doorstep. Next morning she
unfolds the paper very carefully, so as not to shake up the
three hairs. If they have arranged themselves in the approxi-
mate form of the letter F, the answer is yes; if they fall into
the shape of an N, she will do well not to marry the young man.
There are some things such as kissing over a gate that
lovers must never do, under any condition, though it is not
clear just what would happen to them if they disobeyed this
injunction. Neither must a man kiss a girl while he is standing
and she is sitting in a chair, since to do so would cause a violent
quarrel or "fraction" at once, and perhaps some more serious
calamity.
The girl who kisses a man, or even winks at a man, while she
is menstruating will ultimately be "ruint" and probably have
an illegitimate child. The same fate will come to a menstruating
girl who sits in a chair that has just been vacated by a boy.
Many mountain girls who do not really believe these things
are still careful about this chair business. "There's nothing to
those old sayin's, of course," one young woman told me, "but
everybody knows about 'em, so it don't look modest for a girl
in that shape to go round settin' in boys' chairs. And some of
these old grannies always notice it. They've got an eagle eye
for things like that."
182 COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE
It is said that if a family keeps black cats about, all the
daughters will be old maids. Young girls are told that if they
trim their fingernails on Sunday they will be slow in finding
husbands. A girl who rides a mule will never get a man. If a
woman sits on a table, or lets anyone sweep under her chair
or across her feet with a broom, she will not get married for
a long time. A girl who inadvertently steps over a broom will
either not marry at all, or she will be unhappy in her married
life. If a country girl accidentally upsets a chair, she will remain
single for at least a year ; when a young girl knocks over a chair
in the presence of persons not friendly to her, she abandons all
decorum and leaps wildly to set it up again, because any ma-
licious individual may begin to count inaudibly as the chair
falls, and the number of counts made before the chair is picked
up represents the number of years which must elapse before the
poor girl's marriage.
There is an old saying that a girl who takes the last biscuit
from the plate at the table will be an old maid, and there are
some people in Missouri and Arkansas who take this very seri-
ously. If a man happens to take the last biscuit it is said that
he will soon kiss the cook but this latter notion is only a joke,
a cause for polite laughter.
If a boy meets a girl with whom he has been intimate and
doesn't recognize her because she is dressed up, it means that
one or both of them will marry very soon. If a dog who knows
you well suddenly acts as if you were a stranger, it is a sign
that you will soon be married. If the first corn silk you see in
the summer is red, you will attend more weddings than funerals
that year.
When one sees two snakes in a house at once, it means that
there will be a wedding there before long. If two crows per-
sistently circle over a cabin, it is a sign that a daughter of the
house is about to marry. A girl who accidentally steps on a cat's
tail will be married before the year is out. If a girl's skirt is
always catching on briars, it is said that she will soon catch
a husband.
COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE 183
When three candles or lamps are accidentally placed in a
row, it means that there will soon be a marriage in the family.
If four people happen to "shake hands crossways" a wedding
is also to be expected. A butterfly in the house, or a bee in a
woman's shoe, or the accidental dropping of three pans at once
are also wedding signs. When a woman inadvertently puts two
knives or two forks together at one plate, she knows that some-
one who sits at the table that day will be married before the
year is out. If the coffee grounds in the bottom of a cup form a
ring, it means that somebody in the family will be married soon.
Some backwoods girls cross their fingers and then listen for
the whippoorwill, every repetition of the bird's cry representing
a year which must pass before the listener can get a husband.
When an Ozark girl finds a jointsnake she hits it with a stick
and carefully counts the pieces ; as many segments as the snake
breaks into, so many years will elapse before her wedding. If
she hears a mockingbird sing after dark she often hastens to
put a man's hat on her head, since this means that she will soon
be happily married.
I knew a young schoolmarm in Missouri who scorned most of
the backwoods superstitions, but who always kissed her thumb
when she stumbled, in obedience to the old rhyme :
Stump your toe,
Kiss your thumb,
You'll see your beau
'Fore bedtime comes.
If a girl inadvertently speaks in rhyme, it is a sign that
she will meet her lover that night:
Make a rhyme, make a rhyme,
See your beau before bedtime !
It sometimes happens that a girl has a spot of dirt on her
face, without knowing it. Somebody sees the spot and cries:
"You got a beauty spot !" Thereupon the girl kisses the back
of her hand, certain that she will see her lover in a few hours.
If a redbird flies across a girl's path, she is sure to be kissed
184, COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE
twice before night f all. (When a boy and girl accidentally bump
their heads together, ribald old men say it's a sign that they
will sleep together soon perhaps that very nighty
When a girl's apron is unfastened accidentally, or her skirt
turns up, or her stocking falls down, or her shoe comes untied,
she believes that her lover is thinking of her. The woman who
inadvertently addresses one person by another person's name
knows that the second individual is thinking of her at the mo-
ment the name is pronounced. But when a girl burns the corn-
bread it means that her sweetheart is angry, and if she finds
cobwebs in the cabin she fears that he will never visit her again.
Some folk name two apple seeds for a boy and a girl, and
drop them on a hot fire shovel ; if the seeds move closer together,
the boy and girl will marry, but if the seeds spring apart, the
boy and girl will separate. Apple seeds are also used by a
girl to see which of her suitors she should accept ; she names
a seed for each lover, moistens the whole lot and sticks them
on her forehead. The seed which adheres longest represents the
most ardent and persistent of her admirers, and the one who
will make the most satisfactory husband.
Many hillfolk tell fortunes and predict marriages by means
of certain quotations from the Bible. For example, the twenty-
first and thirty-first chapters of Proverbs have thirty-one verses
each. Chapter 21 is man's birthday chapter; chapter 31 is
woman's birthday chapter. A boy looks up his proper verse in
the man's chapter, according to the date of his birth. A man
born on the twenty-third of any month, for example, reads
Proverbs 21 : 23 the content of this verse is supposed to be
especially significant to him.
There are few professional fortunetellers in the Ozarks,
although many of the backwoods seers are accustomed to take
money for their services. They always point out, however, that
the "power" is not for sale, but that the client may make them
a small gift if he likes. So far as I can see, the methods of these
women do not differ greatly from those used in other sections
COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE 185
of the country cards, tea leaves, crystal gazing, palmistry,
and the like. Mrs. Angie Paxton, of Green Forest, Arkansas,
perhaps the most famous of the Ozark fortunetellers, generally
made use of coffee grounds, in a cup which was "shuck up" by
the customer. Mrs. Josie Forbes, of Wayne county, Missouri,
whom the newspapers always called "The Witch of Taskee,"
used to sit at a table with the client and make four dots with a
pencil on a piece of paper. She marked one N, one JE, one S and
one W. "Them's the four directions," she said solemnly. Around
these four characters he traced random curving lines, until
the whole thing looked like a conventionalized Arabic inscrip-
tion. Then she began to talk, glancing carelessly down at the
paper from time to time as if for confirmation. Her "readings"
were the usual stuff, except that she rather specialized in the
diagnosis of obscure diseases, for which she recommended
various herbs and proprietary medicines. Both Angie Paxton
and Josie Forbes talked a good deal about love and marriage,
whenever the customer was not too old or decrepit.
Groups of unmarried women at quilting bees used to shake
up a cat in the newly completed quilt and then stand around
in a big circle as the animal was suddenly released. The theory
was that the girl toward whom the cat jumped would be the
first of the company to catch a husband. At other times the
quilters would wrap an engaged girl up in the new quilt and
roll her under the bed, but the exact significance of this pro-
cedure has never been explained to me.
When a lot of sparks are seen to fly from a chimney late at
night, passers-by say it is a sign that "young folks are
a-courtin* " in the cabin. If a bachelor sits between a man and
wife at the dinner table, it means that he will be married before
the year is out. The girl who washes her face in dew, just at
sunup on May 1, will marry the man she loves best. When a
butterfly alights on a young woman's head, it is a sign that she
may change her old beau for a new one "before snow flies." I
once knew a widow who liked to put a four-leaf clover in her
186 COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE
shoe before going to town; she said it might bring her a rich
suitor.
In some localities, when a girl sleeps with her legs crossed
it means only that she is dreaming of her sweetheart, but
several old-timers in Scott county, Arkansas, and Jasper
county, Missouri, tell me it is a sign that she is destined to have
many children.
A schoolmarm in Fayetteville, Arkansas, says that a girl
who looks into a spring before breakfast on May 1 will see, not
only her future husband, but also the children she is to have by
him. A young woman may check this latter information by
skipping flat stones on the surface of a stream, believing that
the largest number of skips represents the largest number of
children it is possible for her to bear.
In the hills near Mena, Arkansas, I met a woman who care-
fully counted the little branches on a brier that stuck to the
front of her dress. She said that the number of branches was
supposed to equal the number of children she might expect to
bear. Perhaps this brier-counting is not taken very seriously,
but it is certainly known to many young women in the back-
woods sections of Arkansas and Missouri.
The signs and omens connected with the marriage ceremony
are numerous and conflicting, but there is a general feeling that
long engagements and postponed weddings do not augur any
good. The old sayin' "happy the wooin' not long a-doin' "
expresses the Ozarker's attitude.
The best dates and seasons for weddings are determined in
part by the changes of the moon and the signs of the zodiac,
but the interpretation of this material varies widely. Many
old-timers believe that marriages consummated at the full moon,
or when the moon is waxing and near the full, are the happiest
and most prosperous. In this connection, mountain boys declare
that "tomcattin' " is always best in the moonlight, especially
when the moon is full, contending that at this time a man does
COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE 187
not acquire any venereal disease and is refreshed rather than
exhausted by his efforts.
The Clinton (Missouri) Eye, in reviewing old-time Missouri
superstitions, says cryptically that "it is bad luck to marry
in the wrong sign of the moon." 3 Many hillfolk believe that
June weddings, consummated when the moon is full, are best
of all. However, marriages in January are highly regarded in
some quarters, according to the old rhyme :
Marry when the year is new,
Your mate will be constant, kind and true.
Weddings in May are said to be unlucky, and so are those cele-
brated in rainy or snowy weather; bright, warm wedding days
are best, and there is an old saying "happy is the bride that
the sun shines on." To marry while the wild hawthorn or red-
haw is in bloom would be very bad luck indeed. There are some
people, however, who say that young folk should marry when
the sign's in the loins in Scorpio, that is and that nothing
else matters.
The wedding day is called the bride's day ; if it is bright arid
pleasant her wedded life will be happy. If the morning is fair
and the afternoon rainy, the first part of her married life will
be happy, and the latter half unhappy. The day after the
wedding, when the "infare" dinner is held at the home of the
bridegroom's parents, is known as the man's day, and the same
weather signs indicate his future happiness or unhappiness.
To postpone a wedding is very bad luck, however, an almost
certain sign that one of the contracting parties will die within
a year, so that when a certain date is once decided upon the
ceremony must be performed, no matter what the weather con-
ditions may be.
It is best to purchase a wedding ring from a mail-order house,
because the ordinary "store-boughten" ring may have absorbed
* Sept. 7, 1936, p. 5.
188 COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE
bad luck from someone who has tried it on in the store. Once on
the bride's finger, the ring should not be removed for seven years.
A couple being married should stand with their feet parallel
to the cracks in the floor, as to stand crosswise invites bad
luck and evil spirits ; this is taken quite seriously in some places.
A bride is sometimes audibly reminded to thrust out her right
foot as she turns away from the preacher after the ceremony,
since it is bad luck to begin one's married life on the left foot.
A pinch of mustard seed may be thrown after a newly married
couple, by the bride's parents ; this is never commented upon,
and I have been unable to learn its significance. If newly mar-
ried people see a toad in the path, immediately after the cere-
mony, they regard it as a good omen.
Another old-time notion is that the newlywed who falls asleep
first after the wedding will be the first of the couple to die ; this
is widely credited in some sections, although it is rarely men-
tioned or discussed. Others think that if the number of letters
in the couple's given names both names added together is
divisible by two, it means that the bridegroom will live longer
than the bride ; if the number is odd, the bride will outlive her
husband.
Some mountain girls believe that it is bad luck to marry a
man whose surname has the same initial as one's own :
Change the name an' not the letter,
Marry for worse an* not for better.
It is a very bad omen for a bride to help cook her own wed-
ding dinner, and some say it means that she will die soon after
the ceremony. Many Ozark mothers will not even allow their
daughters to go into the kitchen for several days before they
are to be married.
It is quite all right, however, for a bride to make her own
wedding garments, and considerable thought is given to the old
adage that a bride should wear "something old and something
new, something gold and something blue."
COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE 189
Mountain girls sometimes conceal a lock of their own hair
in the hem of another girl's wedding dress, or thread a fine
needle with a single hair which is then sewn into some incon-
spicuous part of the bride's outfit. Exactly what sort of "con-
jure" this is I can't say, but it is akin to witchcraft, and some-
how benefits the owner of the hair at the poor bride's expense.
I know of one girl who borrowed a reading lens and examined
her wedding garments very carefully, to make sure that the
women who helped make the dress had not surreptitiously sewn
some of their hair into it.
The color of a bride's dress is important, of course, and every
hill girl knows the little rhyme:
If when you marry your dress is red,
You'll wish to God that you was dead ;
If when you marry your dress is white,
Ever 'thing will be all right.
There are similar verses about the other colors, but they
seem to be taken less seriously somehow:
Marry in green,
Ashamed to be seen.
Marry in brown,
Move into town.
Marry in blue,
Always be true.
Marry in yeller,
Ashamed of her feller.
Marry in black,
Very bad luck.
Here is another version as I heard it near Harrison, Ar-
kansas :
Blue is true,
Yaller's jealous,
Green's forsaken,
Red is brazen,
White is love
And black is death.
190 COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE
This is the way they say it at Sallisaw, Oklahoma :
Marry in white, you have chosen just right,
Marry in blue, your man will be true,
Marry in brown, live out of town,
Marry in green, ashamed to be seen,
Marry in red, wish yourself dead,
Marry in black, better turn back,
Marry in yellow, got the wrong fellow,
Marry in gray, you'll be a widow some day.
This brings us to another old-time verse, which deals with
the significance of eye color in women:
If a woman's eyes are gray,
Listen close what she's got to say;
If a woman's eyes are black,
Give her room an' plenty o' track ;
If a woman's eyes are brown,
Never let your own fall down ;
If a woman's eyes are green,
Whip her with a switch that's keen ;
If a woman's eyes are blue,
She will always be true to you.
A hill woman is very careful not to exhibit any of her wed-
ding garments until she has worn them, or at least tried them
on. I recall a girl who was about to show her mother the new
pink "weddin' slippers" which had just arrived by mail, but
caught herself just in time, reminded by her sister's agonized
outcry. The entire family trembled over this narrow escape
from some nameless calamity.
After the bride is completely dressed for the ceremony, she
must not look into a mirror until the preacher has pronounced
the fateful words if she does, the marriage will turn out badly.
The bride sometimes dresses before her mirror, but is careful
to leave off some small item of attire, such as a bow of ribbon,
which is put on at the last minute without looking in the glass.
It is bad luck for a backwoods bridegroom to put away
his wedding clothes immediately and resume his workaday over-
COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE 191
alls. He is always advised to wear his new suit occasionally for
several months, whether he goes to town or not. The bride does
not seem to observe any such custom ;*she may not sell the dress
she was married in, but she is free to wear it, or pack it away as
a sort of keepsake, or give it to a younger sister. Ultimately
it finds its place in the patchwork quilts of the clan, where it
may be pointed out as Gran'ma so-and-so's wedding dress, long
after the bride and groom and all the "weddin'ers" are sleeping
in the buryin'-ground on the hill.
There seem to be no particular taboos attached to the newly-
weds' cooking utensils, except that it is very bad luck to set
up housekeeping with a new coffeepot. I have known hillfolk,
even educated ones, to borrow a battered old coffeepot and use
it for a month or two, before bringing a brand-new one into the
house.
Some religious hillfolk, particularly the adherents of certain
so-called Holy Roller cults, consider it proper to refrain from
sexual intercourse the first night after marriage ; some of them
are so ostentatious about the taboo that they do not allow the
bride and groom to be alone in a room together. This is sup-
posed to show that the union is somehow spiritual, not based
upon mere physical attraction. A fourteen-year-old girl in
McDonald county, Missouri, was about to be married, and
spoke with something like alarm of what might happen on her
wedding night. The girl's aunt said to her, in the presence of
my wife and several other women : "Don't you be skeerd, honey.
You're a-marryin' a Christian gentleman ! He won't do nothin'
the first night, not even if you was to ask him !"
9. Pregnancy and
Childbirth
The superstitions connected with preg-
y^r^-. nancy and childbirth are very numerous,
kept alive and promulgated by the back-
woods midwives who are known as granny-women. Many hill-
men will not allow a physician to attend their wives in child-
birth, believing that a granny-woman is better. It is surprising,
too, how many women do not want a physician at this time.
"Doc Holton's all right, in case o' sickness," the mother of
seven children said to me, "but I sure don't want no man-person
a-conjurin' round when I'm havin' a baby!" Male yarb doctors
and power doctors have many remedies for "female troubles,"
and some of them try to produce abortions, but they generally
leave obstetrics to the granny-women. When a granny-woman
gets into difficulties she seldom consults with a yarb doctor or
a power doctor, but calls in a regular physician.
Large families are common among the old-timers, and some
hillfolk believe that a girl will have the same number of chil-
dren that her mother had, if she allows nature to take its course.
When a woman has her first baby, the granny-woman looks
very carefully for any lumps or enlargements in the umbilical
cord, since the number of these lumps is supposed to indicate
the number of children the woman will bear. There is a general
notion among these people that more babies are born in August
than in any other month, and when a woman's first child is born
in August it is a sign that she will have many more children.
It is said that if a child is conceived in the winter the mother
will be subject to chills, and if it is conceived in the summer she
will have "hot flashes" and fevers. Some pregnant women sew
PREGNANCY AND CHILDBIRTH 193
little pebbles into their garments, or wear pebbles strung around
the waist in little cloth sacks; there is something secret about
this, something not to be discussed, but it is supposed to prevent
future pregnancies.
If a woman does not wish to become pregnant, she is very
careful about letting people place babies on her bed. Here is
an item from the Springfield (Missouri) News # Leader, Dec.
10, 1933: "At a party in Springfield not long ago, a woman
started to lay her baby down" on the bed. The hostess didn't
want a baby right away v so she asked the guest to lay the baby
on a chair. . . . And if a bride is very anxious to have a baby,
her friends may all take their babies to her house and lay them
on her bed. It's regarded as a sure sign of the coming stork."
A male visitor should always leave a cabin by the same door
he entered; if he fails to do this, it may mean that there'll be
an increase in the host's family. Many mountain people take
this very seriously, and some women make certain that a visitor
does go out the same way he came in. There are a lot of bawdy
stories on the subject, of course.
Every mountaineer's wife knows that if a baby's diaper is
left in her house by some visiting mother, she herself will very
shortly become pregnant. I've heard some good stories about
that one, too.
Mistletoe is used somehow by women who wish to have chil-
dren, and some say that it can be administered by the husband,
without the wife's knowledge or consent. If a woman cannot
conceive, the power doctor may take nine little switches and
tie a knot in each. Then he burns them and makes the woman
eat the ashes.
A tea made of tansy leaves is a well-known abortifacient.
Mrs. May Kennedy McCord says: "Girls used to soak tansy
leaves in buttermilk to whiten their skins, but I remember very
plainly that when they went to Grandma Melton's to get the
tansy . . , they were very particular to tell her what it was
for! Camomile tea was another suspicious character sp'ttin*
194 PREGNANCY AND CHILDBIRTH
tea.** * Mrs. McCord returns to this subject in the News,
Aug. 16, 1941, where she remarks : "And I recall that no woman
ever drank cedar-berry tea without being 'talked about.' Men
might take it for chills, but never women !" Pennyroyal leaves
are also supposed to bring about abortions, and so is a tea made
from the roots of the cotton plant, though the latter is usually
mixed with tansy for the best results. Large doses of turpentine
are believed to cause abortions. Any drug used for this purpose
should be taken in one of the odd months January, March,
May, July, September, or November.
I have known middle-aged women who, at certain times or
seasons, mixed pennyroyal leaves with the tobacco which they
smoked in their pipes. They were rather secretive about this,
implying that it had to do with some female disorder, but I was
never able to get any definite information on the subject.
A tea made of black snakeroot (Cimicifuga) is also used as
a medicine for "female troubles" which usually means amenor-
rhea. Squawroot (Caulophyllum thalictroides) is highly recom-
mended for "the diseases of women." The blossoms of red clover,
dried and powdered, are supposed to "relieve irregularity."
A tea brewed from horehound and raspberry leaves is recom-
mended to young girls who complain of a scanty or painful flow,
although some yarb doctors think that a strong infusion of
red-stemmed smartweed is better in such cases.
Some women in Washington county, Arkansas, are loud in
praise of DevilVshoestring as a remedy for menorrhagia; I
am not familiar with this plant, but the name is sometimes ap-
plied to goat's-rue, a weed which the Choctaw Indians use in
poisoning fish.
Blackhaw bark, according to the old folks, makes a tea that
is useful in all sorts of "female complaints." It is good for scanty,
irregular, or painful menstruation. Women going through the
change of life consume large quantities of blackhaw bark, and
i Springfield (Missouri) Newt, Dec. 3, 1940.
PREGNANCY AND CHILDBIRTH 195
this use of the stuff is so well known that there is a whole cycle
of allegedly funny stories about it.
Mountain girls are not overfond of bathing at any time, but
they are taught never to bathe or even wash their hair while
they are menstruating. There is an almost universal belief
among the hillfolk that to do so causes coughs and colds, leads
to pulmonary tuberculosis, or may even induce a paralytic
stroke. Pregnant women bathe very seldom, and never in cold
water. In some clans it is believed that death is the penalty for an
expectant mother who crosses a running stream, and there are
tales of women going to great lengths to avoid this danger,
A pregnant woman may go about her household tasks as
usual, but she should never try to "put up" fruit the stuff
will spoil every time. She can attend to her chickens, milk cows,
work in her garden, and do other farm chores, but she must
on no account jump over the endgate of a wagon, or stoop under
a horse's neck if she does, she is certain to miscarry. "That
ought to be good news to the gals who want to get rid of their
babies," I said to the old woman who told me this. "Hit don't
work that-a-way, an' you know it," she answered. "You aint
serious-minded, Vance, an' it aint no use to tell you 'bout them
things."
It is common knowledge that in certain neurotic families the
husband falls ill when the wife becomes pregnant. One man
told me that his wife had six children, and that during each
pregnancy he vomited every morning, and so on. The midwife
confirmed his story, as did a local physician who was familiar
with the case. This man's wife was much pleased, thinking that
her husband's suffering indicated the depth of his affection for
her and somehow made her pregnancy easier. "My man he allus
does my pukin' for me," she told the neighbors proudly. Such
a situation is not rare enough to cause much comment and is
referred to as a sort of joke on the husband.
Not many hillfolk practice any sort of magic to determine
196 PREGNANCY AND CHILDBIRTH
the sex of an unborn child, although some granny-women teach
that parents may "fetch a boy" by sticking a knife in the
mattress, while a woman who wants a girl can get results by
placing a skillet under the bed.
There is a rather common idea that the sex of a child is
somehow determined by which parent is the more powerful
sexually ; if the father is most passionate, the children will be
mostly girls, while if the mother is more sensual than the father,
there will be many boys in the family.
Some peckerwood folk in central Arkansas believe that if a
husband sits on his roof for seven hours, near the chimney, his
next child will be a boy. I have known several men to try this,
but only one stuck it out for the full seven hours. He took a
hammer up with him, and when anybody that he knew came along
the road, he pretended to be fixing the roof. The next child was
a boy, too.
Granny-women say that when a pregnant woman's burden
seems to be "carried high" the child is likely to be a female,
but an unborn babe that is "carried low" is nearly always a
boy. A woman who is "big in front" early in her pregnancy
expects a boy baby, while one who grows "big in the back" will
give birth to a girl.
When a pregnant woman has a craving for some particular
article of food, every effort is made to satisfy it, because other-
wise the child is very likely to be "marked." I have seen birth-
marks which were supposed to resemble strawberries, cherries,
sweet potatoes, prunes, eels, and even hams all of which owed
their existence to the mother's unsatisfied craving for these
things. Even if the child has no external marks, his mind is
likely to be affected, and he is sure to be "a plumb glutton" for
the particular food that could not be obtained for his mother.
Children are also said to be marked by some sudden fright
or unpleasant experience of the mother, and I have myself seen
a pop-eyed, big-mouthed idiot whose condition is ascribed to
PREGNANCY AND CHILDBIRTH 197
the fact that his mother stepped on a toad several months before
his birth. In another case, a large red mark on a baby's cheek
was caused by the mother seeing a man shot down at her side,
when the discharge of the gun threw some of the blood and
brains into her face. Another woman in my neighborhood saw
two large snakes fighting or copulating, and when her babe
was born some months later it had two writhing serpents in
place of a head, according to local testimony. I recall a young
farmer who had been worsted in a drunken fight and appeared
in the village all covered with blood and dirt. Instantly every-
body sprang to prevent the injured man's pregnant wife from
seeing him, and one old man shrilled out : "Git Emmy away, folks
she'll mark that 'ar young-un shore !"
The editor of a newspaper at Pineville, Missouri, told me
that during the Civil War some bushwhackers killed a man near
that place; they cut off one of his ears and threw it into his
wife's lap as she sat on her little front porch. The woman was
pregnant at the time, and when her child was born one of his
ears "warn't nothin' but a wart." The people in Pineville re-
garded this as a classic case of "marking" a positive proof
that prenatal influence is a fact.
Mr. J. A. Wasson, of Nixa, Missouri, in the Springfield News,
Sept. 16, 1941, tells of Uncle Wesley McCullah, who was killed
by a bullet which incidentally knocked out two of his front
teeth. Shortly afterward McCullah's widow gave birth to a
baby girl, "born with two teeth the same as her father lost."
"Babies are certainly marked by their mothers during preg-
nancy," writes Miss Annie K. Wilson, of Magnolia, Arkansas,
"a red spot on my finger attesting to that fact, for didn't
Mother dress a cut on my father's knee and get blood on her
finger?" 2
A pregnant woman must not look at a dead body, since this
is likely to mark the baby and might cause it to be born dead ;
* Arcadian Life (April, 1987), p. 27.
198 PREGNANCY AND CHILDBIRTH
women in the early months of pregnancy sometimes attend
funerals but always take care not to look directly at the corpse,
even if it is that of a near relative.
In Lawrence county, Missouri, a woman gave birth to a
female child who was said to be "marked for a cat" the mother
having been startled by an unexpected encounter with a trapped
wildcat in the fourth month of her pregnancy. This baby looked
all right except that its body was unusually hairy, but it never
learned to talk or to walk erect. It mewed and growled like a
cat, ate like a cat, and slept curled up on a pillow behind the
stove. When the cat girl reached the age of thirteen she began
to have "wild spells" at regular intervals, like an animal in
heat. So the family built a stout cage inside the house, and
shut her up while the "spell" lasted a neighbor said that "you
could hear her a-hollerin' an' a-yowlin' half a mile off." I am
told that this cat woman was still living near Aurora, Missouri,
in 1941, and she must have been more than fifty years old at
that time. In recent years, however, she has been very quiet.
She sleeps most of the time and does not have to be caged any
longer. I asked a physician who knows that neighborhood about
the cat woman. "I have never seen this case," he answered, "but
I have heard about her for many years. I don't doubt that they
have got an idiot in that house, who walks on all fours, and is
unable to talk. Doubtless she eats like an animal and behaves
like one in other ways. You can see such creatures in any
asylum. But all this stuff about her being 'marked' by a cat
that's just backwoods superstition. If the mother of that idiot
had been scared by a wolf instead of a wildcat, the child would
have been called a 'wolf girl,' and these farmers would imagine
that the noises she makes sound exactly like a wolf growl-
ing."
Otto Ernest Rayburn, of Eureka Springs, Arkansas, tells
of a woman who was frightened by cattle during her pregnancy,
and the child had a strange cowlike face, "with two small
growths protruding from the head like horns." Not only that,
PREGNANCY AND CHILDBIRTH 199
but the creature "emitted low, rumbling sounds like the bellow-
ing of a bull !"
I am told that there are numerous secret things to be done
and other equally secret things to be avoided during pregnancy,
in order to make the delivery as easy as possible. For example,
it is very bad luck to make a cap or any kind of headgear for
a baby before the baby is born to do this nearly always makes
the "birthin' " a difficult one. In fact, it is dangerous even to
talk about the head or headgear of a baby before it is born;
above all, it is bad luck to tell anybody not to make a cap under
such conditions. If some ignorant outsider does give an ex-
pectant mother a child's cap she burns it instantly, sometimes
right before the donor's eyes.
A woman at Paris, Arkansas, told me that a plant called
spikenard was the best thing to make childbirth easy, adding
that a woman who had plenty of spikenard didn't need no
granny-woman; she bought the dried herb from a traveling
yarb doctor and didn't know whether it grew wild near Paris
or not. "If you caint git spikenard," she said, "the next best
thing is sweet flag" (A corns calamus), which is common in
many parts of the Ozark country. People near Paris tell me
that spikenard is also known as wild licorice; it may be Aralia
racemosa, but I'm not sure about this.
An oil made from pigs' feet is often given internally in the
belief that it somehow facilitates the bearing of healthy chil-
dren.
I have met two granny-women who carry old silver coins that
were once stolen from a church. It is said that to put one of these
coins into a feather bed protects the person who sleeps on the
bed from cramps and venereal infections, but above all it is
used to ease the pains of childbirth.
There are some old people who always make sure that an
empty hornets' nest is hanging in the loft of the cabin where
a woman is to be confined. I have heard of granny-women who
refused to deliver a child until they saw the hornets' nest for
200 PREGNANCY AND CHILDBIRTH
themselves but have never met one who would admit this. It
is a fact, however, that there are few really old cabins in which
one cannot find a hornets' nest suspended under the eaves, or at-
tached to one of the rafters.
Near Pineville, Missouri, I once sat with a neighbor out in a
woodlot, while his wife was giving birth to a child in the house.
This man had a regular physician in attendance, but one of the
neighborhood granny-women had arrived ahead of the doctor.
The patient screamed several times, and then the granny-woman
came out to the wood pile and picked up the ax, which she
carried into the house. I was horrified at this, but the husband
sat unmoved, so I said nothing. After it was all over I asked the
doctor privately how on earth the old woman had made use of
a five-pound double-bitted ax in her obstetrical practice. The
doctor laughed and replied that she just put it under the bed.
"A common superstition," he said. "It's supposed to make a
difficult birth easier, and she saw that this was going to be a
pretty bad one."
Later on I learned that this ax-under-the-bed business is
practiced in all parts of the Ozark country. An old granny
near Sulphur Springs, Arkansas, told me that an ax used for
this purpose must be razor-sharp, since a dull ax may do more
harm than good. It appears that some families I found several
near Sylamore, Arkansas place a sharp plowpoint under the
bed, instead of an ax.
In cases of difficult childbirth, many hillfolk burn corncobs
on the doorstep, or even under the bed. There is an old story
to the effect that red cobs are much more effective than white
cobs, but this is not taken seriously. There is some connection,
however, in the hillman's mind, between corncobs and child-
bearing. J once knew a fellow who was outraged because his
wife gathered a great many red cobs and burned them in the
fireplace at night ; he thought that she did this because she was
unwilling to have any more children.
Mrs. May Kennedy McCord, of Springfield, Missouri, says
PREGNANCY AND CHILDBIRTH 201
that some granny-women, when things begin to go wrong, snatch
up all the blankets in the house, dip 'em in hot water, and hang
them up around the woman's bed.
Many of the old midwives still administer gunpowder and
water to women in labor, believing that it stimulates the
muscular contractions which expel the child.
Dr. J. H. Young, Galena, Missouri, told me of an old-time
healer who proposed to "quill" a woman who was having a very
difficult delivery. Dr. Young had no idea what "quillin' " meant,
but he found out that the old "doc" intended to fill a turkey
quill with snuff and blow it in the woman's face. The theory is
that the snuff makes the woman sneeze, and the baby is born
instanter.
Granny-women in many parts of the Ozark country used to
give a tea made of blackberry root to a woman in childbirth ;
this was supposed to expedite matters but was regarded as
much less drastic than the use of the quill.
After the babe is delivered, some hillfolk burn a handful of
chicken feathers under the bed, as this is supposed to stop
hemorrhage. If the woman has a really bad "bleedin' " they
kill a chicken and fasten the warm lining of its gizzard over
the affected part, usually burning a few feathers at the same
time. Needless to say, one never sweeps under the bed of a woman
in childbirth, or she would surely die. So the ashes of corncobs,
chicken feathers or anything else that is burned must lie there
until the woman is up and about.
When a babe is "born blue" the granny-woman makes "skillet-
bark tea" from the soot off'n the bottom of a kettle or frying
pan. She feeds a few drops of this to the child every ten minutes
or so over a long period of time, perhaps as much as twenty-
four hours.
Many granny-women are accustomed to give every newborn
babe quantities of onion tea, then wrap it in a blanket and wait
till it "breaks out with the hives." If the reddish rash does not
appear, they fear that the child will not live long.
202 PREGNANCY AND CHILDBIRTH
A very common idea is that the afterbirth must be buried
just outside the house, at the corner of the chimney. Some
women say that the particular spot is not important, but they
all agree that the afterbirth should be buried; if it is burned
or thrown into water, the mother will not make a proper re-
covery. 3
There are several strange notions about babes born prema-
turely. The grannies all insist that while seven-month babies
are not uncommon, eight-month babies are almost unknown.
Or, as one old woman put it, seven-month babes often live, while
eight-month babes are nearly all born dead, or die a few hours
after birth. I once asked Dr. Oakley St. John, of Pineville,
Missouri, whether seven-months babies ever lived to grow up.
"Yes," he said solemnly, "if the parents of a seven-months
baby are newly married, the baby generally lives. But when a
woman who has been married more than eight months has a
seven-months baby, it nearly always dies." An old backwoods
midwife who was in the office scowled darkly. The granny-
women regard this as a serious question, and they do not like
to hear people joking about it.
Nothing can convince some of these women that premature
babies ever have fingernails. When a baby is born less than
nine months after its parents have been married, the old gos-
sips always look for the nails. "Caint fool me," said one
old woman. "Them young-uns planted their corn 'bout six
weeks 'fore they built their fences. I seen fingernails on that
baby!"
Many old-timers believe that women never suffer "after-
pains" following the birth of a first baby, but very often have
them after subsequent births. So if a woman does experience
these pains after the birth of her first child, her reputation is
more or less damaged, no matter what the midwives and the
s The same thing is true of amputated limbs, although here the belief is
that the owner will return after death in a mutilated condition and be forced
to search for the lost member through all eternity.
PREGNANCY AND CHILDBIRTH 203
doctors say. Everybody thinks she must have given birth to
a baby some time previously and kept it secret.
There is a very general notion that a woman loses a tooth
every time she has a child. Some say that this goes for abortions
or miscarriages as well, so that every pregnancy involves the
loss of a tooth, no matter what happens to the fetus.
Multiple births are regarded with something like horror in
many localities. "It aint fitten for a woman to shell out young-
uns in litters that-a-way, like a brute beast!" said one of our
old neighbors at Pineville, Missouri. Twins are always asso-
ciated with tragedy and misfortune. Mrs. C. P. Mahnkey,
Mincy, Missouri, recalls that the wife of a notorious Bald Knob-
ber named Matthews gave birth to twins shortly before her
husband was hanged at Ozark, Missouri, in 1889. There was a
good deal of talk about this at the time, and it is still remem-
bered and discussed in Matthews' old neighborhood.
If a child is born with a caul or "veil" the membrane is care-
fully dried and given to the child after it reaches maturity,
otherwise the youngster is condemned to a life of perpetual mis-
fortune. The series of calamities which befell one of my neigh-
bors is accounted for by the fact that she was born with a veil,
which the granny-woman in attendance very properly hung on
a bush to dry ; this woman forgot to bring it to the house, how-
ever, and a great storm blew the thing away into the hills. In
case the afterbirth or the veil falls into the hands of an enemy
of the family, the child will be more or less in this person's power
always and may be forced into all sorts of evil deeds through
no fault of its own. Another important thing to be remembered
is that the band which protects the navel of an infant must be
turned over three times before it is washed or burned; some
people regard this as a safeguard against witchcraft, while
others think that it simply prevents the child from having back-
ache later in life.
Many old-timers believe that sexual unions between human
beings and domestic animals are sometimes fruitful. Stories
204 PREGNANCY AND CHILDBIRTH
of women giving birth to litters of puppies, mares bringing
forth colts with human heads, and a great variety of similar
phenomena are related and generally believed. I have never been
able to locate a hillman who has actually seen any of these
monstrosities "the folks allus puts 'em out o' the way," as one
old man told me.
Hillfolk will seldom admit that their children were born crip-
pled or defective, since this might somehow discredit the fam-
ily. They always say that a defective child was injured shortly
after birth, or that its condition is due to smallpox, measles, or
scarlet fever. I remember a little boy with a crippled foot the
sort of thing that the doctors say is always congenital. The
child's father insisted to me that the boy was perfectly normal
until the age of two, when he was sick for a long time and "the
fever fell in his leg." Another member of the family told me pri-
vately that the child had been crippled from birth, because
somebody had "throwed a spell" upon the mother.
The place where a birth occurs is of no great importance in
Ozark folklore, although some say that a babe is lucky to be
born in a covered wagon, or under a wagon sheet. It is gen-
erally thought best, however, that the mother's head should be
toward the north. Misfortune would certainly be the portion of
a child should the moonlight fall upon the bed at the time of its
birth, and even an adult who sleeps much in the moonlight is
likely to go blind or crazy, or both.
Most of the old-timers believe that a woman should never be
bathed "all over," or her bedding completely changed, for nine
days after the child is born. Some say that the palms of a child's
hands should not be washed until the child is three days old to
do so washes away the infant's luck, particularly in financial
matters. It is always best to bathe a new baby's head with
stump water ; if ordinary water is used, the child is likely to be
prematurely bald when it grows up.
Mrs. May Stafford Hilburn says that it is customary to "wrap
a newborn boy baby in his father's shirt, to bring the child good
PREGNANCY AND CHILDBIRTH 205
luck. A baby girl is given her mother's petticoat as swaddling
clothes, for the same reason." 4
Backwoods people sometimes carry a baby boy out into the
dooryard when he is very small and show him the outside of the
house it is said that this will prevent him from running away
from home later on. Many granny-women think it is a good
thing to carry any newborn babe three times around the cabin ;
some say it protects the infant against sore eyes, others that it
wards off colic.
In some clans, when a baby boy is born, a sister of the babe's
father comes to the house, looks at the child, and then burns
the first hat she finds. No matter whose it is, nor how valuable,
she just picks up a hat and throws it into the fireplace. Many
people laugh at this and pretend to take it lightly, but it is
never omitted in certain families. I know of one case where
there was some doubt about the child's paternity, and the hus-
band's family were by no means friendly to the young mother,
but despite all this one of the sisters came and burned the hat ;
she did it silently and grudgingly and most ungraciously, but
she did it. This practice is never discussed with outsiders, but it
is sufficiently known that a series of funny stories has grown
up about hats being burned by mistake, strangers' hats missing,
doctors leaving their hats at home, and so on.
Medical men say there's nothing to it, but thousands of old
women in the Ozark country are firmly convinced that cats must
be kept away from new babies ; they believe that if a cat gets
a chance, it will sit on the baby's chest and suck its breath until
the child is suffocated.
When a very young baby cries and seems in pain, the mother
looks to see if the wind is in the northeast; if it is, she doesn't
worry, since all babies are supposed to be irritable when the
wind is in the northeast.
There are numerous old sayin's about the influence of the
day of a child's birth upon its character and prospects. Some
* Missouri Magazine (September, 1988), p. 21.
206 PREGNANCY AND CHILDBIRTH
of these are recorded in a rhyme contributed by Mrs. Marie
Wilbur, Pineville, Missouri.
Monday's child is fair of face,
Tuesday's child is full of grace,
Wednesday's child has far to go,
Thursday's child is full of woe.
Friday's child is loving and giving,
Saturday's child must work for a living.
A child that's horn on the Sabbath day
Is blithe and bonnie and rich and gay.
Here is a variant from an old manuscript book belonging
to Miss Miriam Lynch, Notch, Missouri.
Sunday never to want,
Monday fair in face,
Tuesday full of grace,
Wednesday woeful and sad,
Thursday a long ways to go,
Friday loving and giving,
Saturday work hard for a living.
A baby born on New Year's will be lucky always, no matter
what day of the week it happens to be. A child born at the time
of the new moon will be exceptionally strong and muscular.
Children born on Friday the thirteenth will always be un-
lucky, but- a part of this evil may be avoided by falsifying the
record; if such a child ever does have any good fortune, it will
be after the death of the last person who knows the true date.
Some granny-women claim that a baby born between June
23 and July 23 will be a "natural born failure" all its life,
clumsy and unlucky at everything it tries to do. I have known
two women, living in widely separated parts of the Ozarks, who
took extraordinary precautions to prevent their children being
born at this unlucky season. Mr. Booth Campbell, of Cane Hill,
Arkansas, told me that the old-timers in his neighborhood always
claimed March 21 as the unluckiest birthday in the month, and
one of the most unfavorable days in the whole year.
PREGNANCY AND CHILDBIRTH 207
There are several methods of predicting what a child's fu-
ture life is to be. One of the commonest is to offer a boy baby a
bottle, a Bible, and a coin. If he grasps the bottle first, he will
be a drunkard ; if the Bible, a preacher, or at least a religious
man ; while if he chooses the coin, he will engage in some mer-
cantile pursuit.
If there are seven sons in a family, and no daughters, the
seventh son is clearly intended to be a physician. The seventh
son of a seventh son is a physician in spite of himself, endowed
with healing powers which cannot be denied. Even if such a man
does not study or practice medicine, he is very often called
"Doc" or "Doctor" by common consent. However, small-time
gamblers are often called "Doc" too, just as every backwoods
auctioneer becomes a "Colonel."
If there are ten sons in a family, and no daughters, the tenth
son must be a preacher. "God meant it to be that-a-way," an
old woman once told me. "He knows how many preachers we
need in this world." She would not go so far as to say, however,
that it is a mistake to call men who are not tenth sons into the
ministry.
Many hillfolk believe that a third son is more intelligent than
his brothers and should therefore be encouraged to "git more
book-1'arnin'." Others contend that, other things being equal,
the fourth child has the brains of the whole family. It is often
said too that a child who is small for his age is unusually bright,
while a boy who is large for his age is generally slow or even
dull-witted.
One often hears that babies with long hair grow very slowly,
since their strength all goes into the hair. Some hillfolk believe
that an infant with very long hair, or any other characteristic
which makes it appear older than its real age, will not live long.
It is very unfortunate for a baby to see his reflection in a mir-
ror; some say that this will cause the child to have bad luck
all his life, others think that he will never live to reach maturity.
A boy baby who bites his nails very young will not grow tall
208 PREGNANCY AND CHILDBIRTH
and is likely to be in poor health most of his life. It is a bad
sign for a child to talk before he walks. Many old folks say
that if a baby walks before he crawls, there is not much chance
of his getting very far in life; some think that such a baby
will become insane, or at least very eccentric, when he grows
up. A small child who sticks his head into a gnat ball (a swarm
of gnats or other small flying insects) will be unlucky and in
poor health for seven years.
It is good luck for a new baby to wear another baby's clothes ;
but once worn, these must never be returned to the child for
whom they were first intended. Never tickle a baby under the
chin, as this may make him stammer. I have seen backwoods
mothers give children water in a thimble ; this is believed to help
in their teething and produce strong, pleasant voices in later
life.
Some old people say that if you take the first louse ever
found on the baby's head and crack it on a bell, the child will be
a good singer. Nancy Clemens, of Springfield, Missouri, tells
me that she once knew a girl who talked a great deal ; the girl's
parents said, half seriously, that it was because when she was
a baby an old woman found a louse on her head and cracked it
on a cowbell.
A blister on a boy's tongue is a sure sign that he will be a
liar when he grows up, but a blister on a girl's tongue has no
such significance. Little girls are told that if they can touch
their elbows with a blister on their tongues, they'll turn into
boys. It is very bad luck for a little boy to eat birds' eggs ; some
of the old-timers think that a boy who does so will never mature
sexually or will be somehow abnormal in that regard. Small chil-
dren of either sex are warned against sitting on rocks, or stone
steps, since the old folks say it will make 'em hardhearted. A
little boy who persists in wearing a string of beads always
comes to a bad end and is very likely to be hanged.
Mrs. Isabel Spradley, Van Buren, Arkansas, tells me that the
natural or accidental death of a child's pet kitten is a fine thing
PREGNANCY AND CHILDBIRTH 20d
for the child, according to the old-timers in her neighborhood.
But it is very bad luck for anybody to kill a child's cat inten-
tionally.
Never call a baby "angel," because babies called by that
name do not live long. When an infant smiles in its sleep, it may
mean that the child is talking to the angels, and this is a bad
omen.
Ozark women have some peculiar notions about the proper
feeding of nursing mothers. Some women eat great quantities
of raw onions, while others drink sorghum-and-water by the
gallon, to insure good rich milk for the baby. I know one woman
who never touched tobacco ordinarily, but while she was nursing
her babe she chewed snuff and "long green" incessantly ; she said
that this was supposed to purify her milk.
Many Ozark mothers can hardly be induced to wean their
children. The doctors say that eight or nine months is long
enough for a woman to nurse a child, but thousands of back-
country mothers nurse their babes for eighteen months, or even
longer. Dr. J. H. Young, Galena, Missouri, tells me that some
of his patients don't wean their babes until they are two or even
three years of age. I myself have seen children at least five years
old run to the mother who was nursing a younger child and beg
for "jest a taste, Maw!" The chief reason for all this, I take it,
is the belief that a woman who is nursing a child can't become
pregnant. I have heard a great many funny stories about this
matter of backwoods reluctance to wean children.
One of the more innocent of these tales refers to a sixteen-
year-old boy who had never used tobacco. One day he suddenly
asked his father for a chaw, and the man expressed some sur-
prise. "Well," said the boy, "Maw's been eatin' onions again,
an' I got to have somethin' to take the taste out o' my mouth !"
Many backwoods women say that they are not afraid of any
infectious disease so long as they are nursing babes. This ap-
plies particularly to measles and scarlet fever; women with
babes at their breasts walk fearlessly into houses where people
210 PREGNANCY AND CHILDBIRTH
are sick with these diseases, when they would hesitate to do so
if their babes were weaned. Some even claim that a nursing
mother is temporarily immune to venereal disease, but I do not
know how widely this latter idea is accepted.
When a mother is finally persuaded to wean her child, the
general opinion is that it should be done in Aquarius, when the
sign is in the legs. Others say that either the thighs or the knees
are favorable places for the weaning sign. One woman told me
that any sign below the heart will do, but that it is absolutely
impossible to wean a child when the sign is above the heart, add-
ing that she had seen it tried with most distressing results. May
Stafford Hilburn says that "an Ozark mother weans her baby
by the sign. If it should be in the head he will be stubborn and
refuse food. If it is in the heart he will cry himself sick, and give
her much worry. Neither will she disregard the sign if it is in
the stomach, for then strange foods will upset his digestion. If
she waits until the sign is 'going down' he sleeps like a log, and
no bad effects are noticed." 5
Even after the child is weaned, there are still some difficulties
about feeding. I have seen a woman sitting at a table, with the
whole family present, also several strangers who had been in-
vited to dinner. Sitting there with the babe on her lap, she
chewed up bits of meat and other food, removed it from her
own mouth, and fed it to the child with a little wooden spoon.
This performance may be good for the child, but it's pretty
tough on the spectators.
* Missouri Magazine (September, 1933), p. 20.
10. Ghost Stories
Nearly all of the old-time hillfolk are
firm believers in ghosts and wandering
spirits, although few adult males will
admit this belief to outsiders nowadays. But in the childhood
of men and women still living, the telling of ghost stories was
much more common than it is today. The pioneers used to in-
vite people to their cabins for the express purpose of swapping
supernatural tales. It was a recognized form of social enter-
tainment, especially favored by people who did not hold with
dancing or card playing.
Mrs. May Kennedy McCord, of Springfield, Missouri, thinks
that the decay of ghost stories in the Ozarks is due to the fact
that there are so few really lonesome places nowadays. In order
to raise a good crop of ghosts, she says, we must have a lot of
old mills and deserted houses and covered bridges and these
romantic spots are not so common as they used to be.
It seems to me that the Ozark ghost stories do not differ
greatly from those that are told in other sections of the United
States. An account of Ozark superstition, however, would be
incomplete without any mention of these tales, so I record some
of them here for what they may be worth.
There are many humorous cracks about the hillman's be-
lief in ghosts. One ancient wheeze refers to a superstitious fel-
low who was afraid to walk past the graveyard at night. His
friends tried to build up his morale, assuring him that ghosts
have never been known to hurt anybody. "Maybe not," said
the hillman, "but I just don't want *em a-follerin* me around!"
Mr. Lewis Kelley, Cyclone, Missouri, told me a kind of comic
212 GHOST STORIES
ghost story he had heard near Cyclone in the eighties. It seems
that old lady Jones and her two sons were stealing sheep from
Jim Bray, a rich old man who had not walked for years be-
cause of his rheumatism. The old woman would wait in the
graveyard by the road, while her two boys went into a field and
got one of Bray's sheep. She always examined the animal they
carried out, and if it wasn't fat enough she'd make the boys
turn it loose and go back after another. One dark night she sat
in the graveyard and waited impatiently. The boys were a little
slower than usual. Meanwhile Jim Bray was talking to his fam-
ily, upbraiding them because they didn't catch the sheep thieves.
"If I could walk," he cried, "I'd go over an' lay for 'em in the
old graveyard, an' I'd stay thar till I did ketch 'em." Finally
two of the Bray boys said "All right, Pappy, we'll jest pack
you over thar," so they picked up the old man and carried him
across the pasture. It was a very dark night, but they knew
the path. When the two boys carried their father into the grave-
yard, old Mis' Jones saw them dimly and thought that it was
her boys returning with the sheep. " 'Bout time you-uns was
a-comin'," she croaked hoarsely. "Is he fat?" and she pinched
the old man's leg! With wild yells of terror the Bray boys
dropped their Pappy and "tuck out" for home, but the old man
was right at their heels when they reached the cabin. Mr. Bray
never doubted that the Devil himself had been waiting for him
in the graveyard. All the rest of his life he boasted that the Old
Boy had riz up out of hell to cure his rheumatism, after the
doctors had plumb give up the case.
Another old tale of the same general type was about two men
who heard that the Devil had been visiting a certain buryin'
ground, so they went and hid behind a stone wall to see what
they could see. This was just before dusk. Two little boys came
along, with a sack of pawpaws they had gathered. They spread
the pawpaws out on the ground, on the opposite side of the
wall from where the two men were hiding, and began to divide
them. "You take this one, I'll take that one ; you take this one,
GHOST STORIES 218
Fll take that one," one of the boys chanted, as he placed the
pawpaws in two separate heaps. Finally the other boy said:
"Well, that's all, except them two big ones over there. You take
the dried-tip one, and I'll take the fat one." This described the
two men pretty well, and they broke out of hiding and ran yell-
ing for home. They thought that some Evil Spirits were divid-
ing up the dead, and that they had been counted in with the
others.
One of my friends at Mena, Arkansas, told of a young man
who was notoriously afraid of the supernatural, and some of
his comrades planned to play a joke on him. They dressed in
white garments and hid near an old graveyard. When the
"skeery" fellow came along the road they sprang out with loud
groans and shrieks. The young man was frightened almost to
the point of madness. He gave one great leap and ran blindly
until he was stopped by a wire fence. Screaming at the top of
his voice he snatched out an old revolver and emptied it at his
tormentors. Two of the masqueraders were hit, one of them be-
ing quite seriously wounded. There has been no more "playin'
ghost" in that neighborhood.
A woman near Sparta, in Christian county, Missouri, tells
a story she learned from her grandmother. A young man had
been visiting his sweetheart, and as he rode away from her gate
at midnight she called out "I'll be with you all the way home."
Soon he noticed something white floating in the air behind him.
He put spurs to his horse but the white thing stayed close.
Just before he reached home the young man's hat blew off, and
he did not stop to look for it. Next morning he told his mother
that the girl was a witch, and that he would never go to see her
again, or have anything to do with her. The girl had no idea
what was wrong; she wrote several letters to the young man,
but he did not answer them, and a few months later she married
and moved to Oklahoma. Our young man never saw her again,
but that fall he walked out in the woods one day and found
the lost hat in a patch of brambles. A roll of cotton was attached
214 GHOST STORIES
to it. The girl and her mother had been carding cotton on the
night of his last visit, and some of the stuff had caught under
his snakeskin hatband. The long roll of cotton, streaming from
the hat, was the "white thing" that had floated behind as he
rode homeward.
In Jackson county, Missouri, the old folks tell of two loafers
who were employed to transport a corpse secretly from a vil-
lage graveyard to a medical school in Kansas City. This was
in the eighties, and they had the body wrapped in canvas and
covered with straw in the back of a wagon. It was a dark, cold
night, and the ground was covered with snow. They stopped for
a toddy at a roadside tavern, and while they were inside a
drunken country boy, knowing nothing of the corpse under the
straw, crawled into the wagon box and went to sleep. When the
grave robbers started on again they had a bottle of whiskey
and became gradually more jovial. Finally, as they were taking
a drink out of the bottle, one of them turned around and shouted
to the corpse: "Git up, old stiff, and have a snifter!" This
aroused the country boy, who sat up with a jerk. "Don't kcer
if I do," he answered loudly. The boy was astounded when both
men screamed wildly, leaped out of the wagon, and fled into the
woods. "I could hear them fellers a-hollerin' for a long time,"
he said later on. "They kept a-gettin' fainter an' fainter, but
they was still a-hollerin'," he added.
Some of the tales that the hillfolk call ghost stories are not
very startling, but simply accounts of sights or sounds com-
monplace enough, except that the usual causes of these sensa-
tions are apparently lacking. Some people named Criger, for
example, drove up to a house near Rogersville, Missouri. This
house had long been vacant, and the villagers said it was ha'nted.
The Crigers stopped because they saw smoke coming out of the
chimney. They entered the house and found it empty, every-
thing covered with dust. They examined the chimney, and made
certain that there had been no fire there for a long time. There
were no birds' nests in the chimney, no chimney swallows to stir
GHOST STORIES 215
up dust. So the Crigers, unable to explain the smoke other-
wise, reluctantly decided that perhaps the house was ha'nted.
In many parts of the Ozark country one hears of a cabin
which is haunted by a wood-chopping ghost. People who try
to camp there are kept awake by somebody chopping wood all
night. At intervals one can hear a grindstone being turned
slowly to sharpen an ax, and even detect a change in the sound
every few minutes, as if water were being poured on the stone.
But there is no grindstone in the vicinity, and nobody has
lived there for more than twenty years.
An old lady in McDonald county, Missouri, told me that she
once sat alone in her two-room cabin, with the door bolted and
the windows fastened on the inside. Suddenly she heard the latch
on the door move, and the sound of a heavy man walking across
the floor. "I could hear one of his boots squeak at every step,"
she said, "and then I heard the dipper rattle in the water bucket,
like somebody was a-gittin' a drink." The old woman jumped
up and ran into the kitchen, but there was nobody there. The
door was still bolted, and the windows were still fastened on the
inside.
Tom Moore, of Ozark, Missouri, tells the story of a "Squire
Reardon" who went out with some other lawyers to visit a farmer
in Taney county, Missouri. This farmer claimed that he could
hear his daughter singing out in the woods every afternoon,
although the girl had been dead for several months. They heard
"a woman's voice, gradually increasing in volume until some
of the words were reasonably plain . . . as if it were traveling
along the pathway . . . loud enough for the yodeling to be
heard at the end of each verse." Two lawyers hurried toward
the sound and watched the pathway along which the ghost was
supposed to walk, but they could see nothing of the singer. 1
The "Squire Reardon" of Moore's story was easily identified as
Lou Beardon, a lawyer who lived in Branson, Missouri. I knew
Beardon well and asked him about this ghost-story. Beardon
i Mysterious Tales and Legends of the Ozarks, pp. 116-121.
216 GHOST STORIES
said that he did not believe in ghosts but admitted that he heard
a strange sound in the woods that day, adding that Judge Moore
and others professed to believe it was the voice of a girl who had
died some time before. "We all heard something," said Beardon.
"I never heard anything quite like it in the woods before, but I
reckon it must have been some kind of a varmint, or maybe a
bird. It sounded like a girl singing, but there wasn't no girl
there. ... I don't know what it was," Beardon ended slowly.
Mrs. Coral Almy Wilson, of Zinc, Arkansas, tells of a couple
who tried to sleep all night in a haunted house. They barred
the door with a hickory stick, thick as a man's arm. The ghost
burst in the door at one blow, but there was nothing to be seen.
A moment later they heard something like big marbles or bil-
liard balls rolling over the floor. They got up and lit a candle
but saw nothing out of the ordinary. The man barred the door
again, and he and his wife were about to lie down again when
the ghost resumed its labors. The door burst open for the sec-
ond time, and as the man sprang to his feet the sound of the big
marbles rolling was heard again. "Once is a God's plenty, and
twice is too much," so the couple gave up the project and rushed
out into the night.
Miss Emma Galbraith, Springfield, Missouri, got this tale
in 1934? from an aged Negro : A yellow woman was entertaining
another man in the cabin, while her husband was away. She
was parching corn at the fireplace. The husband came home un-
expectedly, and she braced herself against the door, so as to
give the man a chance to escape by a window in the rear. The
enraged husband fired through the door, and the woman was
instantly killed. Neighbors both white and black declared that
they could smell corn parching whenever they passed the cabin
in the evening, even after the place had been vacant and dilapi-
dated for many years.
Around Cape Girardeau, Missouri, they tell of a Yankee spy
who was captured in the vicinity during the Civil War. Awaiting
execution, he danced and sang and "carried on" so that many
GHOST STORIES 217
people were disgusted. They thought that a man about to die
should not sing dirty songs or shout ribald jokes at everybody
who came within sound of his voice. But the spy took nothing
seriously, laughed at the good priest who visited him, and even
made fun of his own relatives when they came to bid him good-
bye. Finally he was hanged at the big gate of St. Francis Hos-
pital and buried in Lorimer Cemetery. To mark his grave they
put up a stick about three feet high and hung the dead man's
army hat on top of the stick. When anybody approached the
grave at dusk, the ragged old hat would wiggle and dance about,
even when there was not a breath of wind stirring.
Mrs. C. P. Mahnkey once saw clearly a little cabin on a ridge
in the old McCann game park, near her home at Mincy, Mis-
souri. Never having noticed the building before, she got down
the big field glasses and scrutinized it very carefully, remarking
that there was smoke coming out of the chimney. But the next
day the cabin was gone. And the neighbors told her that there
had never been any cabin at that place, so far as any of them
could remember.
There are many ghost stories concerned with Breadtray
Mountain, in Stone county, Missouri. Otto Ernest Rayburn
repeats a number of these legends, which are largely concerned
with buried treasure. "Breadtray Mountain has a legendary
reputation seldom paralleled," says Rayburn. "It is a land-
mark of strange incident, and hillfolks carefully avoid it." 2
Many old-timers firmly believe that Spaniards, at some time or
other, buried a great store of gold on Breadtray Mountain just
before they were all killed by the Indians. This seems to be a
variant of the well-known "Lost Louisiana" treasure story.
Tom Moore says that people who visit Breadtray Mountain at
night hear sobs and groans and smothered screams ; they be-
lieve that these noises are made by the ghosts of Spanish sol-
diers who were massacred by Indians. Judge Moore intimates
that he has heard these sobs and groans himself, as he says that
* Ozark Country, pp. 304-306.
218 GHOST STORIES
his tale "does not come from second-hand information, nor is
it based upon hearsay." 8 Mrs. C. P. Mahnkey also refers to
mysterious sounds heard by many hillfolk at night on Bread-
tray Mountain. 4
The following tale is told about one of my neighbors near
Pineville, Missouri, and believed by practically everybody in the
settlement. This woman was unkind to her stepchildren, and
one day, as she sat alone in the cabin, a violent blow knocked
her flat on the floor, while a loud voice cried out: "Be good to
my children!" This story is confirmed by the woman herself,
who certainly had some sort of a stroke or seizure at the time.
Several of her neighbors swear that they visited her later in
the day and saw the print of an invisible hand on her face sev-
eral hours after the attack.
Not far from my old home in McDonald county, Missouri,
according to the old-timers, a man was captured years ago by
a band of night riders, who hanged him with his own knitted
"galluses" until these broke and then finished the hanging with
a hickory withe. Some women living nearby buried the body,
but it was dug up later by dogs. Not liking the spectacle of
human remains being gnawed by dogs, the ladies gathered up
the bones and dropped them into a big hollow tree. 'Serious-
minded, sober men and women assure me that they have seen
strange lights about this tree and heard groans, and something
like old-fashioned gun caps exploding all about.
Some fifty miles south of Springfield, Missouri, on the old
Wire Road, the Oak Grove schoolhouse was supposed to be
haunted by the ghost of a man hanged there by bushwhackers
during the Civil War. Only a few years ago four men rode
by the schoolhouse on the way home from a dance and saw a
grinning, bald-headed fellow peering out through the window.
Coming closer, they noticed that the stranger had no eyebrows
or eyelashes. The hillmen addressed the man politely at first,
Mysterious Tales and Legend* of the Ozarks, pp. 8-13.
White River Leader, Branson, Missouri, Jan. 11, 1934.
GHOST STORIES 219
but he made no answer. Finally one of the boys drew his six-
shooter and fired six shots which smashed the glass of the win-
dow, but the stranger grinned on unmoved. Then two of the
boys kicked in the door and searched the schoolhouse, but the
room was empty. The two boys who remained outside, how-
ever, could still see the stranger sitting just inside the broken
windowpane. There are several versions of this tale. Judge Tom
Moore, of Ozark, Missouri, who says he is not superstitious,
writes the whole thing up in his book Mysterious Tales and
Legends of the Ozarks. 6
Mrs. Carrie George, of Toronto, Missouri, says that a cabin
on Old Brushy creek, in the Glaize Park area overlooking the
Lake of the Ozarks, was regarded as haunted for more than
fifty years. The story is that the people who lived there had
murdered a peddler for the sake of his pack and buried the
body under the kitchen. The peddler's ghost returned almost
every night and disturbed people so that the farm changed
hands often. One owner tore down the shed kitchen and dug in
the earth underneath, but did not find the peddler's bones. The
ghost kept coming back as before and frightening people. For
a long time the house stood empty and was still unoccupied the
last I heard of the matter.
There are many tales about ghosts who speak to people,
telling them to dig at such-and-such a place to find a buried
treasure. The ghost is usually that of some fellow who died
without being able to tell anybody where his treasure was con-
cealed, and who cannot rest quietly until someone gets the money
and enjoys it. I met one man who had a persistent vision in
which his grandfather, dead for many years, appeared and told
him such a tale. After having this dream three nights a-runnin',
he dug at the place indicated. He found no treasure but left the
hole open, so the ghost could see that his instructions had been
carried out. Apparently the grandfather's spirit was satisfied,
since the man had no more of these disturbing dreams.
5 Pages 14-22.
220 GHOST STORIES
People in Wayne county, Missouri, say that somewhere near
Taskee an old man was murdered in a farmhouse, supposedly
for his money. For many years after that the old man's ghost
was seen there at intervals and nobody would live in the house.
Finally a traveler who was not afraid of ghosts went to bed
there, after building a rousing fire on the hearth. In the night
he awoke to see the ghost of an old man sitting in front of the
fireplace. "Follow me," said the ghost, "and I'll show you
where the money is. I caint get no rest until somebody finds the
stuff and spends it for something useful." They went outside,
where the ghost pulled out some small stones at the base of the
chimney. Reaching his hand into the hole, the traveler found
quite a sum of money wrapped in an old newspaper. The ghost
was never seen again.
In Benton county, Arkansas, one hears of a family who have
become accustomed to the presence of a ghost, named Sissy.
Sissy was an old maid relative, who wore a peculiar slat bonnet
and a sort of cape, easily recognized at a distance. Very often
members of the family catch a glimpse of Sissy in the orchard,
or near some of the outbuildings. She never comes into the house
and never makes any noise or other disturbance. Sissy died about
the time of the Spanish-American War and was still seen as late
as 1940. The children are told never to laugh at her or to bother
her in any way. It is said that strangers have come to the farm
and seen Sissy, always at a little distance, without suspecting
that she is not a living person. One member of the family even
tried to photograph Sissy but never caught sight of her while
he had the camera in his hands.
I personally knew a young woman, a distant connection of
my family, who died under most unhappy circumstances. On
her deathbed she tried to tell her parents and her brothers some-
thing they thought it was the identity of the man who had
betrayed her. But she was unable to make herself understood.
The whole neighborhood believes that this girl's spirit came
back and haunted the house for many years. The family con-
GHOST STORIES 221
suited mediums and planchettes but could never get in touch
with her, although the ghost could be heard walking about and
opening drawers in an old bureau almost every night.
In November, 1934, the Associated Press carried a long story
about "The Ghost of Paris" a specter which has been seen at
intervals in Paris, Missouri, for more than seventy years. The
"Ghost of Paris" was a woman, tall, dressed in black, carrying
some sort of wand or cane in her hand. She appeared every year
about the middle of October and was seen now and then about
the town until spring. The story identified this ghost as the
jilted sweetheart of a Confederate soldier; on her deathbed she
swore to haunt her faithless lover and the whole town forever.
The "Ghost of Paris" was never known to injure anybody, but
she frightened children into hysterics. Even grown men, in sev-
eral cases, had been known to run down the middle of the street,
yelling for help. It seems that the ghost has not been seen in
Paris since 1934, and some people have suggested that the news-
paper publicity somehow exorcised it.
It was in 1932, I think, that an odd story went the rounds
in Madison county, Missouri. A party of local people coming
along Highway 61 noticed that a certain house had burned
down. Nothing was left but the chimney, with the remains of a
cookstove and two iron beds standing upright in the ashes.
Several days later, having told their friends about the house
being burned, they passed the same way again. They were
astounded to see the house intact, and the people who lived
nearby said that there had been no fire. Most persons regarded
all this as a sign that the house would burn down in the near
future, but it was still standing when I drove by the place in
1940.
About three miles west of Reeds Spring, Missouri, is a little
hog wallow. known as Dead Man's Pond, so called because two
bank robbers were killed there not long after the Civil War.
About 1886 Mr. Will Sharp, of Reeds Spring, found a skull and
some other human bones in the mud. He picked them up and
222 GHOST STORIES
put them in an old hollow stump nearby. The neighborhood of
Dead Man's Pond has long been supposed to be haunted, and
many persons have reported strange doings in the vicinity. Will
Sharp, who still lives near the place, refuses to admit that he
ever saw a ghost there, but says that his brother, Palmer E.
Sharp, had a peculiar experience. "Palmer had been to take
his girl home," writes Will Sharp. "They had attended a party,
riding a horse apiece, and he was leading her horse in the old-
fashioned way. As he went back home alone it was a nice starry
night. Just as he was passing the Pond, the horse he was leading
slowed up and caused Palmer to look around. He said he would
have sworn there was a man in the saddle of the horse he was lead-
ing. The man just seemed to disappear right before his eyes, and
Palmer always tried to beat the dark after that. Now, my
brother was not afraid of ghosts, but what did he see?" Mrs. May
Kennedy McCord, of Springfield, Missouri, refers to the ghost
stories about Dead Man's Pond and tells of one Willie Webber,
who saw a woman in black "with a red apron, and her hands
rolled in the apron" coming along a path near the pond. Sud-
denly the woman's figure vanished, though it was "late evening"
(which means late afternoon, before sundown) and Webber
could see plainly for several hundred yards in all directions.
There was no way that the figure could have disappeared so
suddenly, but it did so disappear. Mrs. McCord lived not far
from Dead Man's Pond as a child and often heard stories of its
being haunted. She says that even now she would be afraid to
go there alone, after nightfall.
In several widely separated localities I have heard the story
of a savage, ill-tempered woman who was always fighting with
her husband. She died suddenly, and some people thought the
man must have poisoned her, but the doctors found no evidence
of poison. After her death, the widower continued to live in the
old house. Neighbors heard noises, as if he was still fighting
with his wife. Dishes breaking, shouts and curses, furniture be-
ing thrown around, and so on. One neighbor rushed over there,
GHOST STORIES 228
and found the man sitting quietly in front of the fire. All the
racket seemed to be in the lean-to kitchen. The neighbor could
plainly hear the woman cursing ; he recognized her voice as well
as certain unusual cuss words and obscene phrases to which
she had been partial in life. "Don't get excited," said the
widower quietly. "She ain't mad at nobody but me."
There is an old story of two villagers who had to pass a
buryin' ground on their way home from sparkin' some country
girls. On several occasions they saw a gigantic white bird flop-
ping about among the tombstones like a swan, or maybe a
pelican, but much larger than either. Finally one of the boys
decided that it was a ha'nt, and called out loudly : "In the name
of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, what's the matter with
you?" The great bird croaked a reply: "I'm lost and tortured
in hell ! I'm lost and tortured in hell !" Having said this, it flew
away toward the south, and was not seen again.
Otto Ernest Rayburn quotes an old-time hillman who re-
marked : "If a white moth lingered about us, we thought it was
the spirit of one of our deceased grandparents hovering over
us." 6 I have mentioned this to many Ozarkers but have never
found anybody who had heard of such a belief. The general
feeling is that while demons or perhaps lost souls might assume
the forms of birds or animals, the idea of one's grandparents
turning into insects is an alien notion. "It must be that feller
has got some Injun in him," one old man observed. "An Injun
will believe any kind of foolishment," he added solemnly.
A very common backwoods tale concerns a cabin where a
peddler or a traveler is supposed to have been murdered many
years ago. There was a big blood spot on the floor, and this be-
came wet with fresh blood every year on February 2, the date
of the peddler's death. A man sitting in this house on February
2 would see weasels, skunks, minks, wolves, or even deer dash
in at the open door, plunge into the big fireplace and vanish up
the chimney. I have heard this story perhaps twenty-five times,
Ozark Country, p. 157.
224 GHOST STORIES
in Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma, but I have never yet
found anybody who could tell me just where the cabin was lo-
cated.
There are many tales of great ghost dogs, and other mon-
strous animals. One of my best friends told me seriously that as
a little boy in McDonald county, Missouri, he once met a spotted
hound that was bigger than a cow, and made tracks in the
snow nearly two feet across. At the time he was astounded that
a dog should attain such a size, but it never entered his head
that there was anything supernatural about the animal. It
was years later, when he came to realize that there were no such
dogs anywhere in the world, he knew that he had seen a "booger
dog." When I first heard this tale I suspected that the man had
invented it for my especial benefit, but on checking with his
relatives I learned that he had told the same story more than
twenty years previously, and that it was known to everybody in
the neighborhood.
Around the town of Bunker, in Reynolds county, Missouri,
they still tell of the ghost dog that Dr. J. Gordon encountered
years ago. Crossing a little stream on horseback, near the Bay
Cemetery about nine miles west of Bunker, late at night, he saw
a figure like a dog, but very much larger. This thing apparently
walked on the water without a sound or a ripple. Dr. Gordon
saw it many times, once in bright moonlight. Sometimes it
crossed ahead of him. Once it jumped on the horse behind the
doctor. The animal plunged wildly, and the doctor fired his
derringer into the ghost dog twice, but it was not dislodged. He
struck at the beast with his fist, the gun still in his hand, but
could feel nothing, and his arm slashed right through the figure
as if there was nothing there.
Some night hunters in Pemiscot county, Missouri, swore they
saw an enormous black dog, fully eight feet long, without any
head. They came close to the creature, and one man threw his
ax at it, but the ax passed right through the body of the booger
dog and stuck fast in a tree. The coon hounds which accompanied
GHOST STORIES 225
the men paid no attention but acted as if they didn't see the big
varmint at all. One member of the party had been drinking,
but the rest of the hunters were quite sober. And every one of
them saw the headless ghost. The fact that the dogs paid no
attention somehow reassured them, and they were not panic-
stricken as might be expected.
Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Mahnkey tells how a fiddler named
Jake Lakey was killed at a dance in Taney county, Missouri,
about 1900. Her neighbor young Lewis Blair and another boy
were sent on horseback to break the news to Jake's wife, who
lived several miles away. Blair told Mrs. Mahnkey that a great
black dog ran beside their horses all the way, and when one of
the riders struck at the creature with a quirt, the quirt slashed
right through it. And when they got to their destination, Mrs.
Lakey said calmly: "You'ens have come to tell me that Jake is
dead." 7
A young man near Alma, Arkansas, was passing a deserted
house one night, when he saw a strange woman in a long white
robe standing at the gate. A little fuzzy white dog ran out in
front of him, and it seemed to be barking, although he heard
no sound. The boy threw a stone at the dog and was astounded
to see the animal separate into two parts, let the stone pass
through, and then go back together again. He talked the mat-
ter over with his parents, and they agreed that it was evidently
a warning of some impending evil, probably an early death. The
young fellow lived for many years, however, and I believe he is
still alive. But about a month after he saw the ghost dog, he
had one of his eyes gouged out.
Farmers near Braggadocio, Dunklin county, Missouri, tell
of a headless dog supposed to live in a hollow elm tree just out-
side the town. At night this phantom runs through the village
streets. It behaves just like any other dog, but it is clearly head-
less. Many people have seen it on moonlight nights, usually at
a distance of about twenty yards. The town dogs always get
v Ozark Life (June, 1930), p. 81.
226 GHOST STORIES
out of its way but do not seem panic-stricken or unduly alarmed.
Tom Moore tells of an old woman who lived alone in a shanty
near Galena, Missouri. Each evening passers-by heard her talk-
ing animatedly, although they could see that she was alone.
People who heard her talk said that she spoke as if to a man
and often referred to a dog which accompanied the man, though
neither man nor dog was visible. Finally the old woman became
ill and was taken to the poorhouse where she died. After her
death several residents of Galena saw a whiskered stranger with
a big dog near the old woman's cabin. This man and dog were
seen by different people on several occasions but disappeared
suddenly at the edge of a cliff. Because of this unexplained dis-
appearance, apparently, Judge Moore and others decided that
the stranger and his dog were somehow supernatural. 8
People near Pevely, in Jefferson county, Missouri, tell of a
ghostly white fox which has been seen by many farmers, and
even by motorists on Highway 61, as recently as 1932. Albino
foxes are not unknown in the Ozarks, but there was something
very special about this one. It was quite tame and had been fired
on many times at close range, but without result. Foxhounds
seemed aware of its existence, but they would not chase it. Sev-
eral persons believe that it could transform itself into a skunk
at will ; others say that they actually saw it turn into a short-
haired black and white dog, with a stump tail.
In southeast Missouri old soldiers claimed that during the
War between the States some men used to see the specter of a
monstrous black hog just before a battle. This was recognized
as a sign that the man who saw the thing would be killed in
action. He told his comrades, made arrangements for letters
and keepsakes to be sent home, and so on. It is said that a man
who saw the black boar never lived more than seven days. They
tell of one trooper who saw the death sign just before a major
engagement but came through the battle unhurt. He laughed at
"superstition" and bragged about his escape, but was killed the
Myfterioug Tales and Legend* of the Ozarkt, pp. 142-148.
GHOST STORIES 227
next evening by the accidental discharge of a comrade's re-
volver. It was a Yankee pistol captured in the battle, one of
the new double-action or self-cocking kind, with which the boys
were not familiar. While the new owner was fiddling with the
lock of the weapon, it was somehow discharged. The bullet
smashed through the brain of the cavalryman who had seen the
great black boar.
In Stoddard county, Missouri, near Bloomfield, stood the
ruin of an old house, so dilapidated that there was not much left
save the big stone chimney. There was a neighborhood story that
gold and silver were buried somewhere about the place. Peo-
ple who tried to dig for the treasure were all driven away by
pigs dozens of wild pigs which came squealing and dashing
back and forth over the site of the old building. They were ghost
pigs, not affected by stones or bullets. One man fired repeatedly
with a shotgun at very close range, but the animals paid no at-
tention. The general impression was that the phantom swine
were somehow stationed there to drive off treasure hunters.
A very similar story used to be told in the vicinity of Jane,
Missouri, near the Missouri- Arkansas line. In this case the pigs
were said to be guarding the place where a murdered woman
was buried many years ago. The woman had some valuable
jewelry concealed on her person, and it is said that her own
half-wild pigs prevented the murderer from exhuming the body
and getting the valuables which he overlooked at the time of the
killing. This all happened long ago, of course; the pigs which
guard the spot nowadays are not living animals, but ghost pigs.
The children near Southwest City, Missouri, a few years ago,
were afraid to go near an old slaughterhouse. The story is that
the place was full of ghost cattle, some of them headless. A
prominent citizen told me that he himself had seen the shadowy
figures of "little bulls" with great spreading horns, often seven
feet from tip to tip. He mentioned this as showing that the
cattle ghosts somehow derived from pioneer days, as there have
been no long-horned cattle in the Ozarks for many years.
228 GHOST STORIES
Much has been written about the "headless ghost of Nicker-
son Ridge," but I have been unable to get much information
beyond that published by my old friend Otto Ernest Rayburn,
the author of Ozark Country. It appears that Tomp Turner,
who lives near Kimberling Bridge on White River, in the south-
ern part of Stone county, Missouri, is not a superstitious man.
He did not believe the headless ghost story until about 1915,
when he saw the thing himself. Highway 13 follows the old
Wilderness Road, where the headless specter had been reported
by the settlers in pioneer days. One night Tomp was riding
south on the highway, when his horse suddenly became very
nervous. He saw the figure of a headless man approaching slowly
not walking, but gliding along as if on roller skates. When
the thing came within thirty steps, Tomp's horse became un-
manageable and bolted into the brush. Tomp finally forced it
back into the road again, some fifty feet beyond, but the ghost
was nowhere in sight. And, as Tomp himself remarked, he didn't
go back to look for it. Several other people have caught glimpses
of the thing in recent years. On wet nights it is said that the
ghost keeps to the brush along the roadside, and groans and
cries are heard from among the bushes. It seems that the head-
less ghost is never seen or heard except on a particular stretch
of road, not more than two or three hundred yards in length.
I met Tomp Turner myself at his home in July, 1932, when Otto
Ernest Rayburn and I went down White River. It was Rayburn
who told me the story in the first place, and he has never been
able to find any legend or history of a murder at this place
which might explain the apparition.
Another headless ghost has been seen in Morgan county,
Missouri, since the Civil War. Some claim that it was on the
job even before the War, as early as 1850. John A. Hannay,
formerly of Versailles, Missouri, says that he saw this ghost sit-
ting on top of a strawstack in the moonlight. It was plainly
headless, but was called "Old Raw Head*' by the natives. When
Mr, Hannay saw the thing it was about forty yards distant, but
GHOST STORIES 229
as he approached the ghost slid down the opposite side of the
stack and was gone. Hannay's grandparents had seen the same
specter many years before, according to the family tradition ;
they were riding along a country road, and this headless thing
ran right between their horses, frightening the lady almost into
hysterics. Some people claim to have heard "Old Raw Head"
scream and even pronounce words distinctly, but I have never
been able to find out just what the headless specter said. Some
people have thought that it must be the ghost of someone who
was murdered in the vicinity. Mr. Hannay says that there
were plenty of cold-blooded murders committed here in the years
following the Civil War, and that he knows the names of many
people involved in these killings ; however, he thinks that it is
best not to mention these people now, because their relatives
and descendants are still living in Morgan county.
Some farmers tell of a headless ghost in St. Francois county,
Missouri, at a house on Back Creek, near Highway 61 south of
Farmington. This ghost appears at upstairs windows of the old
house and rattles chains to frighten campers and tourists away.
They say that a family named Griffin once lived there, and that
the Griffins used to give semipublic dances in the building. One
night there was a big fight, and a fiddler cut off Johnny Griffin's
head with his bowie knife. Griffin was short of stature, while
the ghost appears very tall even without his head. Nevertheless,
many people believe that the headless specter is the ghost of
Johnny Griffin, doomed to haunt forever the scene of his decapi-
tation.
There are men and women still living who recall the excite-
ment that swept the village of Fair Grove, Missouri, in 1895,
when a picture of the Devil suddenly appeared upon the wall
of the Methodist church. The following account is clipped from
the Springfield (Missouri) Republican, dated Jan. 5, 1896.
If anyone should entertain the idea that superstition is forever ban-
ished from the minds of the American people, he should visit just now
the little town of Fair Grove in Greene county. The appearance of
230 GHOST STORIES
a face upon the Methodist church wall has aroused the whole com-
munity and many are speculating upon its origin. During the prayer
meeting on the night of December 19th someone made a discovery.
On the north side of the cupola, in the church room facing the pulpit,
appears a curious looking picture. How, when, or from what source
it came is a mystery and will perhaps never be solved. The picture is
about life size and the most hideous looking thing that can be imag-
ined. The face has the appearance of Satan with fearful eyes, wide
open mouth and a terrifying look. The next morning after the dis-
covery people all around town began flocking to the church to see
the strange picture. Some were quite sure it was the work of the devil ;
others believed it the work of God. Some thought it the work of
human hands, and some thought it had been caused by a leak in the
roof. It was plain to see that the likeness had not been placed there
by a human hand, as there was no paint used, and it was perfectly
dry when found, and could not be erased. The theory that it had been
caused by the rain appeared to be contradicted by the fact that the
top of the picture was three feet from the ceiling, and all above it
was perfectly dry. The rain could not have come through the building
wall as that wall was on the inside and some eight feet from the out-
side of the church. Many people in and around Fair Grove are much
wrought up over the matter. Like the handwriting on the wall at the
feast of Belshazzar it stands. It is said that a few days prior to this
strange appearance, Rev. John Morgan and Rev. E. Plummer were
conducting a revival and little interest was manifest. After preaching
an eloquent sermon on the righteous life, the minister requested those
who wanted to live this life, and go to heaven, to stand up. Finding
no one who responded, the minister then asked if there was anyone
who deliberately chose to go to hell, and if so to stand up. One young
man promptly arose to his feet, much to the surprise of all present.
It is claimed by some that the young man did not understand the
minister's proposition, and stood up by mistake. At any rate he is of
good family and stands well in that community. Those who are super-
stitious about the strange picture which has appeared on the wall
of the church, think it was sent there as a rebuke to the young man
who arose to his feet on that occasion.
Mrs. C. P. Mahnkey, of Mincy, Missouri, tells of several local
people who thought they heard a baby crying in a certain
deserted log house. But there was no baby there. After some
puzzled talk about this, it was remembered that "a family had
GHOST STORIES 231
formerly lived there who had a feeble-minded girl. This girl was
known to be an expectant mother, but no one ever saw the infant
and after a time the family left the country." Mrs. Mahnkey
was content to leave it at that, but local opinion is that the
baby was born and was killed by one of the girl's brothers, who
probably buried the little body somewhere about the cabin.
Another of Mrs. Mahnkey's stories of the supernatural con-
cerns the death of a certain "old man Cook," head of one of
the great clans of the Swan Creek neighborhood, in Taney
county, Missouri. "One of the women told me a curious tale of
the night Gran'pap died," writes Mrs. Mahnkey. "Some of the
watchers were out in the yard. They knew that the end was very
near. Suddenly they were startled to see a solitary horseman
ride up to the front gate, a military figure on a great white
horse. Phantom-like and eerie, as there was not a sound. And
just then someone came out from the house, and said the old
man had died, and the silent rider and the big white horse dis-
appeared."
Tom Moore tells of an old building at Sand Springs, on the
road between Holla and Springfield, Missouri, where during the
Civil War a preacher used to hold forth against the Southern
cause. One Sunday night a Confederate officer threatened the
preacher, then rode his horse right into the meetinghouse, and
had almost reached the pulpit when he was shot dead. The
officer's body fell to the floor near the pulpit, and his horse
turned and walked slowly out of the building. In recent years,
according to Judge Moore's version of the tale, people who
visit the place at night have heard the horse walk into the build-
ing. A moment later they hear the thump of a falling body on
the dirt floor, then the sound of the horse walking slowly out
of the place. Several persons have followed the sound of the
horse's hooves with flashlights but have seen nothing. 9
Miss Mae Trailer, schoolteacher at Everton, Missouri, re-
ports her investigation of a ghost which frightened the country
Mysterious Tales and Legends of the Ozarks, pp. 35-51.
282 GHOST STORIES
folk near the town. Many persons in the neighborhood had seen
this ha'nt near the old Payne orchard. Usually a vague, gaseous
shape would rise in front of some startled pedestrian, float along
ahead of him for a bit, and then sail slowly away into the tree-
tops. Miss Trailer and another teacher drove out to the haunted
orchard at twilight and loitered about waiting for the ghost to
appear. Suddenly they both saw it "a strange luminous ob-
ject, something like a fog, but I shall always declare it had a
human shape," writes Miss Trailer. "The thing wavered and
started toward us, then with a faint breathlike sigh it drifted
off above the orchard and away." Oddly enough, this seems to
have been the ghost's final appearance Miss Trailer never
heard of its being seen again.
People around Nixa, Missouri, still talk about the mysterious
motor car that forced Sheriff Frank Jones off the road and
caused his death in the spring of 1932. Several prominent citi-
zens have seen this phantom car on the highway between Nixa
and Ozark, and Fred McCoy, manager of the local telephone
system, narrowly escaped being wrecked at the exact spot where
Sheriff Jones was killed.
A spectral horseman has been reported occasionally for
many years at a certain point on what is now Highway 13, in
Polk county, Missouri, not far from Bolivar. A little knoll
about a hundred yards east of the highway is called Dead Man's
Hill, and there is an old story about a horse thief who was shot
to death here and buried on top of the knoll. A rude headstone
may still be seen, but there is no inscription, since the man was
a stranger. Flowers were found on this grave at intervals for
many years, so it was believed that the thief's identity was
known to somebody who lived nearby, but who did not reveal
the secret. Men who have seen the ghostly rider have remarked
particularly his neat homespun garments, dyed brown with
butternut juice, his cowhide boots, and the two big Colt re-
volvers swinging at his side. There is nothing in this to identify
GHOSt STORIES 28a
the ghost, however, since many figures similarly attired rode
the Missouri trails in the early days.
Members of the McDowell family, pioneers in Stone county,
Missouri, tell of a ha'nt that used to live in a big black-oak
tree, just across the James River from Galena, near the Fred
McCord farm. The McDowell children would slip down the road
sometimes just at dusk and stand well back from the haunted
tree, keeping an eye out for the ghost to appear. Soon or late
one of them would see "something white a-risin* " in the under-
brush, upon which they all screamed and lit out for home at top
speed. Nobody ever stopped for a second look, and therefore no
detailed description of the "black-oak ghost" is available, but
at least two generations of the McDowell clan were firm be-
lievers in it.
In the northeastern corner of Oklahoma, some fourteen miles
from Joplin, Missouri, is a lonesome stretch of country road
called the "Devil's Promenade." Some mighty strange people
have lived along this road, and some very strange things have
happened there. The best of the "ha'nted road" stories cannot
be told at this time, but there is no longer any secret about the
phenomena of the "Indian lights," which have been seen by thou-
sands of tourists and discussed in newspapers as far off as St.
Louis and Kansas City. One has only to drive slowly along
the road any night after dark to see the "jack-o'-lantern" come
bobbing along, always traveling in an easterly direction. Some-
times it swings from one side of the road to another, sometimes
it seems to roll on the ground, sometimes it rises to the tops of
the scrubby oak trees at the roadside, but it never gets more
than a few feet from the road on either side. I have seen this
light myself, on three occasions. It first appeared about the size
of an egg but varied until sometimes it looked as big as a wash-
tub. It is hard to judge the distance, but the light seemed about
a quarter of a mile off when I first saw it and disappeared when
it approached to a distance of perhaps seventy-five yards. I saw
234 GHOST STORIES
only a single glow, but other witnesses have seen it split into
two, three, or four smaller lights. The thing looked yellowish
to me, but some observers describe it as red, green, blue, or even
purple in color. One man swore that it passed so close to him
that he could "plainly feel the heat," and a woman saw it "burst
like a bubble, scattering sparks in all directions." A fellow who
drove his car straight at the dancing phantom lost sight of it,
but others standing a little way off said that they saw the light
hovering impishly above the pursuer's car, out of his sight but
plainly visible to everybody else in the neighborhood.
Some people think that the light at the "Devil's Promenade"
is the ghost of an Osage chief who was murdered near this spot ;
others say it is the spirit of a Quapaw maiden who drowned her-
self in the river when her warrior was killed in battle. Others
have suggested that the effect is produced somehow by electrical
action of the mineral deposits in the ground, or by marsh gas.
Mr. Logan Smith, of Neosho, Missouri, always contended that
the mysterious lights are those of automobiles driving east
on Highway 66, some five miles away. F. H. Darnell of Neosho,
and a group of surveyors from Joplin, also incline to the view
that cars on the distant highway are responsible for the mys-
terious lights. A. B. MacDonald, of the Kansas City Star, who
came down to investigate the matter in January, 1936, is an-
other convert to the Logan Smith theory. William Shears, who
lives near the Promenade and has studied the phenomena, thinks
that the lights may derive from the beacons at the Quapaw air-
port some six miles away. But the old-timers laugh at all such
explanations, claiming that the Indian lights were seen at the
same spot in the deep woods, fifty years before the "Devil's
Promenade" road was built. Fred C. Reynolds of Kansas City
says that his grandfather, a pioneer doctor at Baxter, Kansas,
observed these lights "long before there was any such thing as
a motor car," adding that he himself saw the "jack-o'-lantern"
as a boy. Bob Hill of Joplin, Missouri, observes that the phan-
tom was seen by many persons in this vicinity before there was
GHOST STORIES 235
a Highway 66, and certainly long before the airport was estab-
lished at Quapaw, Oklahoma.
In many parts of the Ozark country one hears tales of mov-
ing lights, which usually appear in cemeteries. These "grave-
yard lights" are seldom seen at regular intervals or by large
numbers of witnesses, but reports of them are fairly common
nevertheless. People who live near a little buryin' ground on
Highway 123, between Spokane and Walnut Shade, in Taney
county, Missouri, have talked about such "fox-fire lights" for
many years. A bluish light, they say, apparently about as high
as a man's head, first appears among the gravestones and then
slowly crosses the road. It moves about as fast as a man walk-
ing, I was told. After listening to these tales I went to this
graveyard myself and waited in the dark for hours on three
consecutive nights but saw nothing out of the ordinary.
May Kennedy McCord, of Springfield, Missouri, printed sev-
eral tales of local ghosts and spirits in the Springfield News $
Leader (Feb. 2, 1936). Here is a letter which she received a
few days later, from a minister of the gospel :
Dear Madam I read your ghost stories with interest, and I will add
a modern daylight story. Two days before Christmas 1925, four of
us were sitting in plain view of Little Creek cemetery, and there ap-
peared a pillar of fire, about ten feet high with a flaming star at the
top of it. It occurred at 4:15 P.M., and was there at the same time
three days later. It appeared four times. I have lived here fourteen
years and have lived in sight of other cemeteries, but that is the first
ghost I ever saw and I am 75 years old. I have been a preacher 55
years. A man went to the cemetery to watch for it and be there when
it came ; said he would throw his coat over it. Well, it came, but he
run like a turkey. Yours in Jesus' name, A. J. Graves, Hartville, Mo.
There is an old tale often told to children about a family
that had just finished butchering hogs. That night, after they
had all gone to bed, they heard a voice cry out: "Where's my
hog's feet at?" The old man got out of bed but saw nothing.
Pretty soon the voice was heard again : "I want my hog's feet !"
The man jumped up again, and the old woman told him to keep
286 GHOST STORIES
a-lookin* till he found the intruder. Finally he peered up the
chimney and sprang back as though amazed. "God-a-mighty I"
he cried. "What's them big eyes for?" A long pause, and then
came the deep-voiced answer : "To see you with." The old man
turned away from the fireplace, but came back in a moment
to ask: "What's them big claws for?" There was a hollow groan
from the chimney, then the strange voice boomed : "To dig your
grave with !" This quieted the old fellow for awhile, but a few
minutes later he quavered: "What's that big bushy tail for?"
A long silence, then the reply : "To sweep off your grave with."
No more questions were put for some time, but finally the old
gentleman couldn't stand the suspense any longer. "What's
them big teeth for ?" he cried. "TO EAT YOU UP WITH !" At this
point the story-teller's voice rises to a scream, and he jumps
at the listening child with a great show of teeth. This story is
sometimes called "Raw Head and Bloody Bones" or "Raw
Bones and Bloody Meat."
Another backwoods bedtime story, told to children around
the fire at night, relates the troubles of a woman who killed her
baby and cooked it and served it to her husband. Not knowing
what sort of meat it was, the man ate the stuff without comment.
Later in the night came the little ghost crying :, "Pennywinkle !
Pennywinkle ! My maw kilt me, my paw et me, my sister buried
my bones under a marble stone. I want my liver an' lights an'
wi-i-i-ney pipes ! Pennywinkle ! Pennywinkle !"
Here's a fragment of another juvenile tale, salvaged in Chris-
tian county, Missouri, some years ago : A traveler was a-ridin'
along and he come to a ha'nted house. It was plumb full of cats.
There was cats runnin' all over the place, and even up on the
roof. A great big cat come up to the traveler and says : "When
you git to the next house, you stop and tell 'em that old Kitty
Rollins is dead." So the next house he come to, the traveler got
down and went in. The house was empty except for an old
bedraggled-lookin' cat settin' in the corner by the fireplace.
"Well," says the traveler, "I come to tell you that old Kitty
GHOST STORIES 287
Rollins is dead." The old cat jumped up and says "By God, I'll
be king yet !" and out of the door he run.
A man once interrupted my lecture on Ozark folklore to
ask how many people in the Ozark country really believe in
ghosts and witches. I am unable to answer such a question, of
course. Mr. H. L. Mencken, who lives in Baltimore, once an-
nounced his conviction that 92 percent of the people in Mary-
land believe in ghosts, and that 74 percent also believe in witch-
craft. I have no idea how Mencken arrived at these figures, and
I do not claim to know whether or not they are correct. I have
some acquaintance with Maryland, however, both the cities and
the rural districts, and I do not for a moment believe that people
in Maryland are more superstitious than those who live in the
backwoods sections of Missouri and Arkansas.
Sometimes one encounters an outspoken skeptic, even in the
Ozarks. An old man in Morgan county, Missouri, said: "I have
heard talk about a ghost around here for fifty years, but I never
seen it. I would walk ten miles to see a ghost any time. But I
don't believe there is no such thing. The people here aint got
much sense. One of my neighbors thinks a man who has been dead
four years comes and steals cream out of his springhouse every
night !"
There is a rather general idea that departed spirits, when
they return to earth, prefer to appear in the dark of the moon.
It is also believed that the dead, if they can't rest in their graves,
are somehow inclined to loiter about redbuds, pawpaw trees,
and haw bushes though why they should be attracted to these
particular plants nobody seems to know. Another common no-
tion is that persons born on Hallowe'en are more likely to see
ghosts and talk with them than are persons whose birthdays fall
on other dates.
Some people say that a rider can often see a ghost, ordinarily
invisible, by looking at it from between his horse's ears. "You
just sight down the horse's nose like it was a rifle bar'l," a farmer
told me. It is widely believed that dogs and horses see all the
288 GHOST STORIES
ghosts that men do, and many more which are invisible to the
human eye. So one may be sure that if there is a ghost any-
where about, the horse's head will be pointed at it. I used to try
this trick, whenever my horse showed alarm without any ap-
parent cause, but I was never able to see anything supernatural.
Several old-timers have told me that if one addresses a ghost
with the words "in the name of God," the apparition will be
powerless to do any harm. Other people think it's safer to cry
out "In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, what do
you want?" If the thing is a witch or a demon it will vanish
when the sacred names are pronounced ; if it is simply a restless
unhappy spirit it will return a civil answer in plain English
and depart.
I have heard many stories of backwoods preachers who claim
the power to quiet wandering spirits and drive ghosts or demons
out of haunted houses, but I have never been able to trace one
of these tales to its source. I know several Holy Roller preachers
who say they are willing to attempt the exorcising of a specter,
but I have never found one who would affirm that he had actually
done so.
Some old folk pretend to lay a ghost by putting a stone on
the dead person's grave. A very small pebble, qr a handful of
gravel, will do as well as a large stone. I have myself seen graves
which were conspicuous because of the large number of pebbles
which had been placed on them. And I have seen apparently in-
telligent adults always half -jokingly, or with some humorous
apology toss little pebbles on such graves.
The Ozark hillman frequently entertains a wry humor in
connection with his folk beliefs humor of a sort not often en-
countered elsewhere. An old gentleman in Eureka Springs,
Arkansas, talked freely about pioneer customs, folksongs, play
parties, and even feuds, but when asked for local ghost stories
he had nothing to contribute. "There's ghosts in Texas," he
said soberly, "and maybe in Oklahoma, but not here." I waited
GHOST STORIES
239
for a long moment, without any comment. "This country is just
naturally too rough for ghosts," he said finally. And anybody
who has visited Eureka Springs will understand exactly what
the old gentleman meant.
11. Animals and Plants
There are numerous miscellaneous
superstitions regarding animals and
plants, which do not fall conveniently
into any of the classes hitherto discussed. For example, there is
the notion that roosters always crow at midnight, and again
about 5 A.M., but that on Christmas morning they all sound off
exactly at three o'clock. In some sections, farmers insist that
snake doctors (Odonata) are never seen over the fields before
10 A.M. or after 4 P.M. The harvest fly or summer locust, a big
yellow cicada, is supposed to begin its song precisely at high
noon ; I have seen a farmer stop work in the field and set his watch
by the harvest fly's note.
Many backwoods folk are convinced that there is a mutual
understanding between squirrels and mosquitoes, so that the
latter protect the former from hunters. In early June, when
the squirrels are feeding on mulberries, mosquitoes sometimes
appear in such numbers that a hunter cannot remain quiet long
enough to stalk a squirrel.
My ridge-runner friends nearly all insist that the big Ozark
fox squirrels castrate the smaller gray squirrels ; the male fox
squirrels and the male gray squirrels do fight savagely some-
times, and it is true that many male grays in this region are
without visible testes.
A great many hillmen believe that the male opossum ejects
his sperm into the nose of the female, which then blows the
spermatic fluid into the vagina a belief wholly without founda-
tion, which doubtless had its origin in the peculiar bifurcate
form of the opossum's penis, and to the female's habit of nosing
the vulva.
ANIMALS AND PLANTS 241
Very few Ozark hunters accept the ordinary opinion that deer
shed their horns annually. Each year, the hillfolk say, the horns
soften and velvet shows on them ; evidently they itch, too, as
the animals are often seen rubbing them against bushes. This
rubbing causes the soft ends of the horn to split open, and some-
times to bleed. Then the horns grow a bit, and turn hard again ;
as the ends are split, there are two points where one grew be-
fore. Sometimes one tip splits into three parts instead of two,
so that the right and left antlers differ in the number of points.
If deer really shed their horns every year, as the government
game wardens say, how is it that we don't find them lying about
on the ground?
It is very generally believed that the appearance of an albino
deer is a bad sign ; some hillfolk think it has something to do
with witches' work, others that it is an indication of disease
among the deer, and that venison will be unwholesome for seven
years. In 1939 a white deer was seen in Taney county, Mis-
souri, and many natives were pretty much upset about it. Mrs.
C. P. Mahnkey, of Mincy, Missouri, wrote to a local newspa-
per: "I cannot overcome a subtle uneasy feeling that this may
be a token. In other words an omen, or warning, but old-timers
use the old words."
The old folks at Thomasville, in Oregon county, Missouri,
say that the early settlers often saw a white buck in the woods,
but nobody would shoot it for fear of some bad luck. It was
seen at intervals for about fifteen years, and when it finally
disappeared people said that it must have died of old age.
Many old-time hunters believe it is a mistake to kill deer on
Sunday. Not only sinful, but also unlucky ; some say a man who
bags a deer on the Sabbath will not get another for seven weeks,
even if he goes hunting every day. A well-known hunter in Mis-
souri saw a small doe almost in his front yard one Sunday and
refrained from shooting it, although he was badly in need of
meat. Early next morning he looked out to see two fine bucks
in the same place and killed them both. This man was firmly
242 ANIMALS AND PLANTS
convinced that the two big deer were somehow sent to him on
Monday, because he had resisted the temptation to shoot the
little deer on Sunday.
Woodsmen say that the fox sometimes "charms" squirrels
out of the trees, simply by rolling about on the ground until
the squirrel becomes "dizzy like" and gradually descends to
see what is going on. Finally, when the distance is short enough,
the fox suddenly recovers, makes a great spring and catches its
prey. Three old hunters, sober and ordinarily trustworthy men,
assure me that they have witnessed this performance. A great
many others have heard of it, and seem to believe that foxes
really do charm squirrels and even wild turkeys in this manner.
Dr. J. H. Young, of Galena, Missouri, told me that he once saw
a red fox rolling wildly about beneath a tree in which two squir-
rels sat watching the fox's antics. Dr. Young waited a long
time, but the squirrels did not come down.
When a female fox is pregnant, or is nursing her young,
many hillmen believe that something changes about the odor
of her body, so that even the best hounds can't follow her trail.
Frank Payne, of Stone county, Missouri, in the midst of an
argument about religion, once mentioned this as evidence that
there is a God who takes care .of foxes at such times, in order
that they shall not be exterminated.
In many parts of the Ozark country one hears of enormous
wildcats ; there are men who swear they have killed cats four
feet high, weighing 150 pounds ! A bobcat shot by Del Taylor,
near Galena, Missouri, in January, 1945, was the biggest I
ever saw in the Ozarks. But it was very thin and probably
weighed less than forty pounds.
Marvel Cave, near Notch, Missouri, was regarded with super-
stitious awe by many of the old-timers, who used to warn tour-
ists away from the place. A schoolteacher in Walnut Grove,
Missouri, declared that one subterranean room was literally
full of the bones of panthers and bobcats. All of these animals
for miles around, according to the old story, made their way
ANIMALS AND PLANTS 243
into the cavern before they died, to leave their bodies with those
of their ancestors in the "cat room." It is true that the bones of
panthers and wildcats, along with those of deer, elk, bears, and
other animals, have been found in Marvel Cave. But the "cat
room" story is obviously a myth.
Many of the old settlers believe that panthers or "painters"
have a great appetite for human infants and will go to almost
any length to obtain one. It is said that they locate babies by
smelling the mother's milk as the babe is fed. Wayman Hogue
tells several stories of panthers devouring babies. At Hogue's
own home, in Van Buren county, Arkansas, a painter fought
their dog to a standstill and came down the chimney after a
five-day-old infant. The beast was driven off by Hogue's mother,
who tore open a straw mattress and threw the straw on the
fire, producing a great blaze through which the painter could
not descend. 1
Farm boys always tell the city feller that a skunk cannot
discharge his stinking liquid without raising his tail, and that
one has only to hold the tail down to render a polecat harm-
less. They say also that if a skunk or civet is suspended by the
tail, so that its feet do not touch any solid object, the animal
is unable to throw a single drop of perfume.
Groundhogs are hunted by boys with dogs, and young ground-
hogs are very good eating. But some of the old-timers frown on
the modern practice of shooting groundhogs. They don't mind
if city sportsmen do it but often forbid their own children to
shoot groundhogs, because it is supposed to bring bad luck.
There are persistent tales of a fine-haired, golden-yellow,
red-eyed groundhog, much larger than the ordinary kind. Har-
old Wales refers to this as the "yellow-bellied marmot." 2 I have
met old hunters in Arkansas who claim to have shot these "big
goldy groundhogs" but have never seen such an animal myself.
The old folks are all agreed that it is bad luck for a hunter
i Back Yonder, 1982, pp. 170-181.
* Arkansas Gazette, July 3, 1938.
244 ANIMALS AND PLANTS
to return home with an empty gun this entirely apart from
the immediate advantages of personal protection and the like.
I have been told of cases in which whole families have gone
supperless because of a hillman's reluctance to use his last
cartridge.
There is a very general notion in southwest Missouri that
there were no rats in the Ozarks in the early days, until they
were brought in by settlers from the east. One John Cooper,
who lived in Springfield, Missouri, in the early 1900's, always
contended that there were no rats until the Frisco railroad
came in. The rats arrived in boxcars, he said, and later took to
the woods and became common everywhere as they are today.
It is bad luck for a rabbit to cross your path from left to
right; you can take the curse off, however, by tearing some
article of clothing just a little. If the same rabbit crosses your
path twice, it means that you are needed at home immediately.
One often hears that it is a bad sign for a flying squirrel to
get into an automobile, and people who have closed cars are
careful to run up the glass at night. There is a good practical
reason for this, however, since flying squirrels have been known
to gnaw big holes in the upholstery.
Some hillmen claim they can prevent wolves from howling,
or hounds from baying, simply by muttering some gibberish. I
have seen this tried, but with no great success. Some men can
make an owl cease hooting, it is said, merely by pulling their
trousers pockets inside out, and others pretend to stop the
noises of crickets, katydids, tree toads and even bullfrogs by
the same procedure.
I was once tramping through the woods at dusk, hunting the
cows with a farm boy. We stopped at intervals and strained
our ears for the distant bells but could hear nothing save the
clamor of tree frogs and katydids. Finally we rested under a
big tree which seemed to be full of these noisy creatures. "Watch
me make 'em shut up," said the boy, and slapped the trunk
lightly with his hand. Instantly all was silence. I have since tried
ANIMALS AND PLANTS 245
this trick myself, and it seems to work under certain conditions.
But I don't think there's any magic about it.
The Ozarker does not like to hear a screech owl near his cabin,
since it is always an unfavorable sign and may indicate sick-
ness or approaching death. But above all he cautions his chil-
dren never to imitate the call of such a bird under these condi-
tions. If an owl hears its cry answered from within the cabin, it
will return again and again and sooner or later descend the
chimney and scatter the fire out on the floor, so as to burn the
whole place down.
One often hears children say that whoever hears the first
dove coo in the spring will soon take a trip in the direction from
which the sound came. Some older hillfolk really seem to be-
lieve that whatever a man is doing when he hears the first dove
of the season, that's what he'll have to do all summer. In Taney
county, Missouri, they tell me that the ruling bird is the whip-
poorwill rather than the turtle dove, but the idea is the same.
Various sorts of birds are believed to carry warnings. A
woman in my neighborhood whipped her grown daughters un-
mercifully, until one day "the redbirds come an' ha'nted her"
by tapping on the windowpane, which gave the woman a terrible
fright and caused her to mend her ways. Another of my moun-
taineer friends was greatly disturbed when a "rooster redbird"
hovered about his door ; he said that it was a warning of death,
and sure enough, one of his daughters died within a few weeks.
If a bird defecates on a girl's hat or bonnet, it is regarded
as positive evidence that her parents are stingy ; some say it's
a sign that the parents do not approve of the girl's suitor.
Buzzards are supposed to seek out and vomit upon persons
guilty of incest. It is said that a certain man near Siloam
Springs, Arkansas, never ventures out into the open if a buz-
zard is anywhere in sight. There are persons who have a patho-
logical horror of buzzards, just as some otherwise normal in-
dividuals hate and fear cats.
I have met men who contend that when the buzzards dis-
246 ANIMALS AND PLANTS
appear in the fall they do not fly south but hibernate in caves
like bears, bats, and groundhogs. Lennis L. Broadfoot quotes
Ed Lehman, Carter county, Missouri, as follows: "I go in
some caves where there's great flocks of buzzards. There's lots
of people that don't know where the buzzard goes for the winter,
but they live in the caves here in the Ozarks all winter long." 8
There is an old story that when a crow fails in his duty as
a sentry I believe it is true that some crows watch while
others feed all the crows in the neighborhood meet to "try"
the offender. If the culprit is found guilty the rest attack him
and kill him at once. An old man in Southwest City, Missouri,
told me that he had twice "heard the crows a-caucassin' " in
the tall trees near his home and had on both occasions seen
the guilty bird pecked to death by his fellows. The noise made
by crows at a trial, he said in all seriousness, is very different
from that which they make when they are tormenting a hawk
or an owl.
It is said to be very bad luck to count the birds in a flock.
Nevertheless, Ozark children have a little jingle to sing when
they see crows flying:
One's unlucky,
Two's lucky,
Three's health,
Four's wealth,
Five's sickness,
Six is death.
I have heard this used in Newton county, Arkansas, as a
counting-out rhyme, in connection with some childish game.
To find a dead crow in the road is always lucky, but a dead
"carr'n crow" is a sign of superlative good fortune. Just what
"carrion crow" means in the Ozarks is not clear to me, as I
have never examined one of these birds. Some old hunters say
that the carrion crow is just a little larger than an ordinary
crow, dead black rather than glossy, and that it croaks or
a Pioneers of the Ozarks, p. 146.
ANIMALS AND PLANTS 247
squalls rather than caws. But other Ozark woodsmen tell me
that the real carrion crow is as big as a buzzard, but a bit
darker in color, and its head is feathered while the buzzard's
head is bare. It is said also that the tips of the carrion crow's
wings are whitish and much more rounded than the buzzard's
wing tips. These birds are said to fly with buzzards, and nearly
all of the old folks believe that they mate with buzzards. Several
river guides have pointed out flocks containing both buzzards
and carrion crows on the shores of Lake Taneycomo, but they
all looked pretty much alike to me, and I could never get close
enough to see the difference in heads and wing tips.
There is a good deal of confusion in the Ozarks about the
whippoorwill, a crepuscular or nocturnal bird which is often
heard but seldom seen. A great many hillfolk believe that the
whippoorwill is identical with the night hawk or bullbat, often
seen flying about in the late afternoon. Some Ozarkers ap-
parently believe that the bullbat somehow changes into a whip-
poorwill, or vice versa. Charles Cummins, a veteran newspaper-
man of Springfield, Missouri, defends this belief in the Spring-
field Leader <$ Press, Sept. 25, 1933:
Coincident with the appearance of the Harvest Moon, Ozark bullbats
are turning to whippoorwills. You are leary of that? Skeptical, also,
that tadpoles turn to frogs, wiggletails to mosquitoes? The bullbat,
which came off the nest early and has awkwardly, like the young
martin, clung fast to a tree limb all Summer, soon will be seeking a
barrage in low growth trees, where at evening tide it will begin that
familiar and lonesome call.
The truth is, of course, that the bullbat and the whippoorwill
are two distinct species, which differ widely in appearance and
habits. Neither bullbats nor whippoorwills "come off the nest,"
because they do not build nests but deposit their eggs on bare
rocks or on the ground. I have seen both birds incubating, and
found bullbats' eggs on a gravel roof in Joplin, Missouri.
There are people at Thayer, Missouri, and at Mammoth
Springs, Arkansas, who claim that the bullbat, the whippoor-
248 ANIMALS AND PLANTS
will, and the rain crow are one and the same bird which pre-
sumably gives the rain crow "holler" at midday, the bullbat
cry in the afternoon, and the whippoorwill call at night. The
rain crow of the Ozarks is the yellow-billed cuckoo, which has
nothing much in common with either the bullbat or the whip-
poorwill. Some Ozark natives have told me that the rain crow
is merely a variant of the turtle dove, hatched by the same
parents, so that the rain crow and the turtle dove are compara-
ble to the red and gray phases of the screech owl. This con-
fusion of rain crow and turtle dove is understandable, since
the two are somewhat similar in appearance at a little dis-
tance. According to W. S. White, of Bolivar, Missouri, most of
his neighbors believe that the rain crow lays its eggs in other
birds' nests as the cowbird does ; this belief seems very odd, since
any sharp-eyed country boy can find the rain crow sitting on
its nest, and the large pale-green eggs are common in Ozark
collections.
It is said that all hawks are blind in dog days, which is ob-
viously not true. Many farmers think that hawks call chickens
to their doom by imitating the cry of a young chick in distress,
and this may be a fact for all I know.
Blue jays are supposed to be very rare on weekends, and
children are told that these birds go to hell every Friday to
help the Devil gather kindling. Another story is that the blue
jay spends Friday breaking off twigs to be burned by wicked
people here on earth. There is an old song with the chorus :
Don't you hear that jaybird call?
Don't you hear them dead sticks fall?
He's a-thro win' down firewood for we-all,
All on a Friday mornin'.
The great plicated woodpecker, rare in most sections of the
country, is still fairly common in the Ozarks. Most Ozarkers
call it a woodhen, but it is also known as "God Almighty" or
"Lord God Peckerwood," doubtless because of its large size ; it
ANIMALS AND PLANTS 249
looks as big as a teal duck, or a crow. This bird is supposed
to have some supernatural powers, and I am told that various
portions of its body are highly prized by witches and goomer
doctors.
It appears that many old settlers have a peculiar feeling
about the wren ; some of them really believe it is different from
all other birds, and that there is something supernaturally
evil in its habits. The bite of a wren is supposed to be deadly
poison, perhaps because wrens eat so many spiders. I have
known country boys who were accustomed to rob every birds'
nest they could find, but had never even seen a wren's egg, much
less touched one, although wrens were nesting all over the place.
Several of these fellows told me that it is very bad luck to kill
wrens, the best course being to let them severely alone.
I have heard experienced woodsmen insist that young crows,
before they leave the nest, are white. Why they say this I have
no idea, since one has only to look into a crow's nest in the
spring to see that it isn't true.
There are numerous old sayings and proverbs about the dates
when certain birds first deposit their eggs. One often hears it
said that guinea hens never lay until the first week of "buck-
berry swell." The buckberry swell is the season when the buds
on buckbrush begin to enlarge, usually about the middle of
March, I think.
Many turkey hunters claim that loud thunder really does
kill young birds in the egg, especially birds that nest on the
ground such as turkey, quail, ducks, geese, and the like. They
insist that it is the thunder that does the damage, not the
lightning or the rain. One veteran hunter says that hen turkeys
usually desert their nests about twelve hours after a severe
thunderstorm ; he thinks they can tell somehow that the eggs are
dead and realize that it's no use to fool with 'em any longer.
Some of these Ozark bird hunters tell a story about the time
the powder works blew up, over in Jasper county, Missouri, and
no quail were hatched that year for seven or eight miles around.
250 ANIMALS AND PLANTS
Old fishermen have told me that the redhorse and white suck-
ers will not spawn until they see dogwood blossoms on the
banks of White River. It is true that these fish shoal about the
same time that the dogwood blooms, but it is doubtless a mat-
ter of temperature ; certainly there is no evidence that any fish
can see flowers on the shore, or distinguish between dogwood
bloom and other flowers.
Harold Wales, of Mammoth Springs, Arkansas, mentions
the hillman's belief that the eel is a male catfish.* Many hill-
folk believe there is something supernatural about the repro-
duction of eels. This is doubtless because no little eels are seen
in the streams, and eels are never found to contain spawn. The
Ozarker does not for one moment accept the scientists' tale that
eels reproduce only in salt water.
Another odd notion is that if you leave a fried eel alone,
the flesh will be '"blood raw" in a few hours, just as if it had
never been cooked at all. This is not true, as anybody with a
piece of fried eel can demonstrate. But I have heard the story
all over the Ozark country, and have met a score of men and
women who declared that they fried eels at night and saw the
same fish dripping with blood next morning.
Many Ozark people believe that eels are inordinately fond
of human flesh, and there are stories of vast numbers of eels
taken by fishermen callous enough to use this sort of bait. On
the lower White River, according to one account, some fisher-
men murdered a Negro girl and soaked thousands of dough balls
in her blood ; with this gruesome bait they caught a whole truck-
load of eels in two nights' fishing. This story was widely cir-
culated at one time, but the peace officers who investigated the
matter found no evidence of a killing, nor any trace of the
truckload of eels.
There are some Ozark folk who will not touch eels at all, but
most of the old-timers eat blue eels freely enough, while contend-
ing that the larger yellow species is poisonous. I have seen yel-
* Arkansas Gazette, July 3, 1938.
ANIMALS AND PLANTS 251
low eels weighing five or six pounds thrown away by giggers at
Noel, Missouri, on the Cowskin River. And Mr. R. W. Church,
of Pittsburg, Kansas, tells me that people near Stuttgart,
Arkansas, think that yellow catfish are not fit to eat ; he says
that the boys down there used to eat the blue catfish and throw
the "yaller bellies" to the hogs.
I know many rivermen who believe that spoonbill catfish,
which grow quite large in some of the Ozark rivers, are not
wholesome food for human beings. These fellows cut the heads
off spoonbills and sell the flesh to the tourists as ordinary cat-
fish, but they don't eat such stuff themselves. Other fishermen
tell me that the injurious substance occurs mainly in the brain
and spinal cord; if a man must eat spoonbill cats, he should
split 'em open as soon as caught and remove not only the head
but the entire backbone as well. In many places one hears ex-
perienced fishermen say that a spoonbill catfish can't swim
downstream, though nobody seems to have any particular rea-
son for this belief.
Catfish and men, it is said, are the only living creatures known
to eat pawpaws ; dogs and even swine turn from them in dis-
gust. However, though it is almost proverbial that catfish are
"plumb gluttons for pawpaws," I have never seen a hillman
use them as bait. "Fish that's a-feedin' on them things," an old
man told me, "aint fit to eat nohow." It seems very odd that
these fellows eat pawpaws themselves with every sign of relish
but regard fish that have fed upon pawpaws as unwholesome.
Personally, I do not believe that catfish have any particular
fondness for pawpaws, although they doubtless eat 'em on oc-
casion, as they will sometimes devour any sort of garbage that
falls into the water. But the catfish-pawpaw legend is heard
the length and breadth of the Ozark country, and is repeated
even by second-growth hillbillies in the cities.
Guides on the Ozark streams are always telling the tourists
that gars are deadly poison, but I have seen people eating
them on the lower White River. There is a very ancient idea
252 ANIMALS AND PLANTS
that mussels, the shells of which are collected and sold to the
button factories, are poisonous. This despite the fact that shell
diggers are known to eat them, when times are hard, without
any fatal results. In fact, I don't mind admitting that I have
eaten mussels myself. They aren't very good, but they're cer-
tainly not poisonous.
Ozark fishermen are careful never to step over a fish pole,
or over a fishing line on the ground ; if a man does inadvertently
take such a step, it means that he will catch no more fish that
day.
Country boys often leave one fish of a large catch hanging
in a tree near the fishing hole. "Oh just for the birds," a boy
answered rather sheepishly when I asked him why this was done.
The old-timers say that it is supposed to bring good luck next
time. A woman at Calico Rock, Arkansas, told me that it was a
trick learned from the Cherokees, who always left several of
their best fish lying on the bank. The old Cherokees whom I in-
terviewed, however, said they never heard of any such foolish-
ness.
The old-timers believe that an east wind is the worst possible
omen for a fisherman, but I have seen large catches of bass
made in Lake Taneycomo when an east wind was blowing; I
recall at least one fine jacksalmon which was taken in White
River, when a regular gale was blowing from the east. There
is a very general belief that all fish bite best during the dark
of the moon, and also that fish exposed to moonlight are likely
to spoil in a few hours. Another old story is that bass won't
bite during an electrical display, but I have caught both big-
mouth and black bass in a thunderstorm, with flashes of light-
ning illuminating the whole countryside. Many old rivermen
insist that fish won't bite when the sign is in the heart or stom-
ach, but it seems to me that there is no truth in this, either.
If dragonflies or snake feeders alight on a still-fisherman's
bobber it is a sign of bad luck; but if the little black beetles
ANIMALS AND PLANTS 253
called lucky-bugs gather around his cork, he may expect to
catch a fine string of pan fish.
Many rivermen say that fish may be kept fresh for several
days, even in the hottest weather, simply by wrapping them in
green walnut leaves. Others claim that the same result is ob-
tained by smearing the dressed fish, inside and out, with black
pepper.
Any hillman will tell you that an ordinary mud turtle con-
tains seven kinds of meat pork, beef, mutton, venison, chicken,
duck, and fish. Despite this belief, the Ozarkers as a class sel-
dom eat turtles. The hillfolk who do eat them choose the soft
shell kind, not snappers or hard-shells, although I have eaten
all three and find little difference. Some of the Indians in east-
ern Oklahoma eat land turtles or box tortoises, and a dog which
will point these creatures always brings a good price in the
Osage Nation. Bird hunters will not believe this, but it is a fact
that some pointers and setters will disregard quail in order to
retrieve land turtles.
Miss Margaret Lillie, of Rockaway Beach, Missouri, who
boasts some Cherokee blood, told me that she had eaten land
turtles and that they were very good. Later on I tried one my-
self, as cooked by some Indians from Sallisaw, Oklahoma, and
found it palatable enough. But I have never known a non-
Indian hillbilly who could be induced to taste a land turtle, and
the majority of them will not eat any sort of reptile.
There is an old saying that once a turtle bites a man, it never
lets go until a clap of thunder is heard, but I don't think any-
body really believes such an obvious falsehood. Akin to this is
the idea that a snake can't possibly die until the sun goes down,
no matter how badly it is injured. No snake can cross a horse-
hair rope, according to the old-timers, many of whom have
never even seen a horsehair rope.
If a single horsehair is placed in water, in the summer time,
it is. believed to turn into a snake. This notion probably arose
254 ANIMALS AND PLANTS
from the fact that long hairlike worms, said to mature in the
intestines of grasshoppers, are sometimes seen in watering
troughs and roadside pools. I found one of these creatures once,
in my springhouse at Pineville, Missouri. It was about a foot
long, white, and rather thicker than a horsehair. One end was
tapered, the other blunt the tapered end seemed to be the
head. I kept the thing in an aquarium for several days. It was
always moving, the tapered end being most active in exploring
every crack and cranny as if seeking a way out. Later on some
boys showed me another horsehair snake they had found in a
creek. This one was about five inches long, dark brown in color,
and very active. It really looked pretty much like a piece of
horsehair, and the boys who found it had no doubt that it was
a horsehair which, in the natural course of events, had "turned
into a snake."
The old story of the hoop snake which puts its tail in its
mouth and rolls downhill is believed by many ; in most cases this
creature pursues some poor hillman, misses him, and strikes
the horn on its tail into a growing tree ; the hoop snake's horn
is deadly poison, and the tree always dies within a few days
sometimes the green leaves wither and fall within an hour. Otto
Ernest Rayburn repeats the story of a woman who was attacked
by a hoop snake, but the sting in the snake's tail barely touched
her dress. She washed the dress next day, and the poison "turned
three tubs of wash water plumb green !" 5 I have met reliable
and honest farmers who say that they have seen hoop snakes
rolling through the tall grass, and there is no doubt in my
mind that they are telling what they believe to be the truth.
But the scientific herpetologists are all agreed that the hoop
snake is a myth.
A variety of blacksnake called the "blue racer" is popularly
supposed to chase people, particularly little boys playing tru-
ant from school. Many people believe that the coachwhip snake,
a big blacksnake with a red tail, has been known to catch a
* Ozark Country, p. 267.
ANIMALS AND PLANTS 255
child by the lips, take one turn round his neck, and whip him
very severely; sometimes two coachwhips are said to work to-
gether, one holding the victim while the other lashes him.
Poisonous snakes, when in the water, are said to lie on the
surface with the entire body afloat, while nonpoisonous ser-
pents swim with only the head exposed ; many hillmen really
believe that this is a reliable way to distinguish between the
venomous cottonmouth moccasin and several species of harm-
less water snakes. Some noodlers or rock fishermen, accustomed
to catch big fish with their bare hands, say that moccasins
never bite a man under water. Others believe that the snakes
may bite, but are unable to inject poison into the wound while
their heads are submerged.
Many persons believe that female snakes, particularly water
moccasins, swallow their young at the approach of danger. One
of my neighbors says that he suddenly came upon a large "bitch
cottonmouth" with a number of young snakes playing about
her ; the moment the old moccasin saw him she opened her
mouth wide, and the little ones instantly ran down her throat.
A few moments later he killed the big snake, cut her open, and
found fourteen little moccasins inside.
A number of sober backwoods farmers have told me seriously
that before a copperhead takes a drink of water, it discharges
its venom carefully out upon a flat stone; a moment later,
having drunk, the creature sucks the poison into its fangs
again.
There is an almost universal belief that the king snake, which
has no poison fangs, can kill any copperhead or rattler. And
there are people who say that the king snake is not affected
by the venom of a rattlesnake, because it eats rattlesnake weed
as an antidote. The story goes that every time a rattler bites
the king snake, the latter hurries over to a snakeweed nearby
and nibbles off a leaf or two, before returning to the fight. I
have never found anybody who claims to have witnessed this
performance, and the whole thing doubtless began as a tall
256 ANIMALS AND PLANTS
tale, but there are people in Missouri and Arkansas today who
accept it as a fact.
Many people in northwestern Taney county, Missouri, tell
me that they have killed big timber rattlers with hair on 'em.
"Like coarse bristles, black, about three inches long," the story
runs. "Mostly there's a scatterin' of bristles just back of the
snake's head, and maybe a few more shorter ones about eight
or ten inches from the tip of his tail." So many people in this
region tell the story that I am almost persuaded that they have
seen rattlesnakes with something like bristles on them. It oc-
curred to me that the "hairs" might be some kind of parasite,
but the experts at the American Museum of Natural History
tell me that nothing remotely resembling bristles has ever been
found on snakes anywhere; Dr. Charles M. Bogert, of the de-
partment of herpetology, suggests that the "hairs" might be
cactus spines, but this does not impress me since the only cactus
in this region is the prickly pear, which has short thorns not at
all like the three-inch bristles which my neighbors insist they
have seen on these Taney county rattlesnakes.
All snakes are supposed to go blind and change their skins
during the dog days in late summer and become more belligerent
than at any other time. Uncle Israel Bonebreak, an ordinarily
reliable old gentleman who lives near Pineville, Missouri, tells
me that he has often seen blacksnakes, chicken snakes, milk
snakes, and other harmless serpents deliberately attack human
beings during the dog-day period. There is an old saying that
"all snakes go blind when huckleberries are ripe," and it ap-
pears that some hillfolk accept it as a literal truth.
A great many Ozarkers fear the common blow snake or puff
adder quite as much as the venomous copperhead. Visitors from
the city have fallen into this error too, and even Marge Lyon
says that "the spreading adder, called spread head, is very
poisonous." 6 The truth is, of course, that the vicious-looking
adder is completely harmless.
And Green Grass Grows All Around, p. 294.
ANIMALS AND PLANTS 257
The innoxious little green tree snake is believed to carry a
deadly poison. It is called the snake doctor, and is supposed to
cure all other kinds of snakes when they are sick or injured.
I once found a large timber rattler which had been badly
wounded, apparently by deer or goats. An old hunter who was
present said "Look out for the doctor!" and began to search
the bushes nearby. Sure enough, in a few minutes he found one
of these little green snakes in a blackberry bush.
The old folks say that wherever you find a scorpion the
Ozarker's name for a harmless little blue-tailed lizard there
is always a snake only a few feet away.
There are several old tales about an odd relationship between
snakes and babies. According to one story, well known in many
parts of the Ozark country, a small child is seen to carry his
cup of bread and milk out into the shrubbery near the cabin.
The mother hears the baby prattling but supposes that he is
talking to himself. Finally she approaches the child and is
horrified to see him playing with a large serpent usually a
rattlesnake or copperhead. The baby takes a little food but
gives most of his bread and milk to the big reptile. The mother's
first impulse is to kill the snake, of course, but the old-timers
say that this would be a mistake. They believe that the snake's
life is somehow linked with that of the child, and if the reptile is
killed the baby will pine away and die a few weeks later. I have
heard old men and women declare that they had such cases in
their own families and knew that the baby did die shortly after
the snake's death.
A spotted serpent called the milk snake is said to live by
milking cows in the pasture. I know several persons who swear
they have seen these snakes sucking milk cows, and they say
that a cow which has been milked by a snake is always reluctant
to allow a human being to touch her thereafter.
Some of the Holy Roller preachers are accustomed to bring
poisbnous snakes into the pulpit, declaring that God will pro-
tect His servants from all harm, and quoting various Biblical
258 ANIMALS AND PLANTS
references to such matters, usually the statement in Luke 10:
19, where the saints are given power to tread on serpents and
scorpions and assured that nothing shall hurt them, or the
passage about taking up serpents in Mark 16: 18. I have not
seen this performance myself, but I once called on one of these
"snake-wavin' preachers" and was shown two large copper-
heads in a cage. The man of God refused to handle them in my
presence, although I offered to make a substantial contribution
to his church. He said that he claimed nothing for himself, but
that a temporary immunity to snake venom was sometimes given
him by God Almighty for the purpose of impressing His poor
sinful children. "I don't believe in temptin' Providence," he
added, "an' I don't never touch no sarpints only when I feel
the Power a-comin' on."
It is very generally believed that there is something about
the odor of gourds or gourd vines which repels snakes ; many
people plant gourds near their cabins for this reason, although
they will seldom admit it to an outsider.
Some families have secret spells or "charms" which are sup-
posed to protect them against snake bite, but the nature of
these has not been revealed to me. I do know, however, that
some hillfolk are very careful to avoid the use of the word
"snake." Instead of warning their children to beware of snakes
in the path, they say "look out for our friends down that way,"
or "there's a lot of them old things between here and the river."
If despite all precautions a hillman is bitten by a reptile which
he regards as poisonous, he still has recourse to some astound-
ing remedies but I have dealt with the treatment of snake bite
elsewhere in this book.
There are many odd notions concerning insects and arach-
nids. Big centipedes are common in the hill country, no matter
what the Chamber of Commerce people may see fit to tell the
tourists about it. Some old-timers say that a centipede tries
to count the teeth of every child who approaches him ; if the
creature makes a correct count, the child will die in a few weeks.
I have seen children close their lips firmly and even cover their
ANIMALS AND PLANTS 259
mouths with their hands when a centipede appears in an Ozark
cabin. Many hillfolk repeat the tale that the bite of a centipede
makes the flesh fall off the bones, but I don't think there's any
truth in it.
People near Natural Dam, Arkansas, told me that the Devil's
horse, or praying mantis, is deadly poison, and that a boy near
that place died as a result of its bite. Local physicians laughed
at this story ; one doctor said that he didn't know whether or
not the Devil's horse was poisonous, but he knew damned well
that it had never killed anybody in his neighborhood. Children
in the Ozarks are often told, however, that it is bad luck to
"pester" a Devil's horse, as the creature is likely to spit tobacco
juice in one's eye and perhaps cause blindness.
The sting of the big Ozark hornet is a painful matter, but I
never heard of hornets killing anybody. Mr. Elbert Short, how-
ever, who lives near Crane, Missouri, reports the old idea that
if seven hornets sting a man at once, the poor chap dies in-
stantly, as if he had a bullet through his heart.
Very few of the mountain people would intentionally kill a
spider, since such an act is supposed to bring misfortune in its
wake. It is bad luck to kill a cricket, too, though I have not
heard of any definite penalty for this. My neighbors were dis-
gusted to see me using little black crickets as fish bait. One man
who looked at a fine string of perch that I had taken with
crickets observed that he would not eat one of these fish or
allow his children to do so. "I'd have to git mighty hungry,"
said he, "before I'd ever put one of them crickets onto a fish
hook."
There are several peculiar superstitions relating to the larva
of the ant lion, which lives in little cone-shaped pits in the dirt
under rock ledges. Every boy is told that if he finds one of these
nests and cries :
Oh Johnny Doodlebug,
Come up an* I'll give you a bushel of corn!
the insect will climb out and show itself immediately.
260 ANIMALS AND PLANTS
Mr. Lewis Kelley, of Cyclone, Missouri, tells me that prac-
tically all of the old settlers believed that spiders hatch from
eggs laid by "dirt dobbers" or mud wasps. "Just open up a
dirt dobber's nest," he said, "and see if you don't find it full
of live spiders." The truth is, of course, that the spiders are
stung by the adult wasps into a state of paralysis and placed
in the mud nests to serve as food for the young dirt dobbers.
The old-timers have heard of this theory, but they don't be-
lieve it.
The white foam which appears on the stems of certain weeds,
produced doubtless by the activities of some small insect, is
always called frog spit; this is merely an imaginative name,
however, since the hillfolk don't really believe that frogs are
responsible for it. Many of them are convinced, however, that
horse flies somehow hatch out of frog spit. I have met old men
who told me seriously that fleas are hatched from eggs, under
ordinary conditions, but are sometimes produced spontaneously
from dog hair.
Charles J. Finger, of Fayetteville, Arkansas, told me of
his neighbors who believe that the drops of resin found on pine
boards often turn into bedbugs. I have never encountered this
idea but have known many hillfolk who think that bedbugs are
somehow generated from bats. Some old-timers say that the
daddy longlegs or harvestmen deposit their eggs on bats, and
that these eggs hatch into bedbugs. "If you mash a daddy long-
legs," said an old fellow in Polk county, Arkansas, "it smells
just exactly like bedbugs"' this being regarded as evidence of
parental relationship, apparently.
There is an old saying to the effect that dog fennel breeds
chiggers and kills ticks ; the hillfolk claim that chiggers swarm
on the yellow flowers, and this may be true, for all I know. The
old notion that fennel kills ticks seems to have no foundation
in fact. The common milkweed with orange-colored blooms
(Asclepias) is also called chigger weed and is said to be head-
quarters for chiggers.
ANIMALS AND PLANTS 261
The hills around Bonniebrook, the old O'Neill home near
Day, Missouri, are crawling with chiggers and wood ticks all
summer. There is only one place in the whole neighborhood
where it is safe for campers to sit on the ground, and that is
a certain hillside where pennyroyal grows. Pennyroyal is a kind
of mint, and it really seems to discourage both ticks and chig-
gers.
Many Ozark people insist that cedar trees are poison to the
tiny seed ticks which are so abundant in July and August. One
often sees farmer boys take off their overalls and brush their
bare legs with a cedar bough. I have tried this myself, but
without any benefit whatever. And the cedar thickets or "brakes"
in Taney county, Missouri, are swarming with seed ticks every
summer.
There are strange theories about certain trees, and I have
touched upon some of these items in connection with witchcraft
elsewhere in this book. Many old people believe that there is
something supernatural about the propagation of the ironwood
tree, which is supposed to be planted by the Devil's agents. And
there are woodsmen in Missouri who say that sassafras trees
do not grow from seeds, but somehow sprout from grub worms.
One often hears that mistletoe, known as witches' broom, is
used in casting magic spells and the like. Some farmers hang
a bunch of mistletoe in the smokehouse, "to keep witches off* n
the meat." About Christmas time the country boys make a little
money by gathering mistletoe and sending it to the city markets.
These fellows all say that mistletoe doesn't come from seeds but
grows spontaneously out of bird manure.
The pawpaw tree is well known to be connected with witch-
craft and devil worship, and even a gray-and-black butterfly
(PapUio ajax) is looked upon as "strange" because it is so
often seen fluttering about pawpaw trees. People near Good-
man, Missouri, tell me that there is some direct connection be-
tween pawpaw trees and malaria, but just what this relation is
I don't know. Pawpaws are becoming rare in many sections
262 ANIMALS AND PLANTS
where they were formerly abundant; this is regarded by the
old-timers as a bad omen, perhaps a sign that the end of the
world is at hand.
Several tales about the dogwood tree are linked up with re-
ligious legends. One story, said to be very old although I never
heard it until about 1935, is that the cross on which Jesus died
was made of dogwood, and that He cursed the tree and doomed
it to be stunted and twisted, unfit for any kind of lumber. In
the center of the dogwood flower is something said to resemble
a crown of thorns, while a brown mark like the stain of a
rusty nail shows at the tip of each white sepal. A fanciful
and romanticized version of this legend was written up by
C. E. Barnes of Sulphur Springs, Arkansas, in the 1930's and
was published by many Arkansas newspapers. 7
In Washington county, Arkansas, a wood chopper told me
that it was the willow, not the dogwood, which was cursed by
Jesus. "An 5 since that day," said the old man, "the wilier tree
aint been worth a good God damn for nothin'." This man assured
me that the tale of Jesus cursing the willow is in the Book
by which he meant the Bible. "I caint read myself," said he,
"but it's in the Book all right, an' any o' these here spindle-
assed preachers can tell you all 'bout it." A related legend of the
willow tree is the "Jesus and Joses" story recorded by Pro-
fessor H. M. Belden who got it in 1914 from a man at Holla,
Missouri. 8
The wild hawthorn or redhaw (Crataegus) is another ac-
cursed tree, though just how this came about is unknown to
me. In March, 1923, the legislature named the hawthorn bloom
as the state flower of Missouri, but there are many people in
the southern end of the state who avoid touching it and regard
even an accidental contact with the blooming tree as a very bad
omen. Both redhaw and blackhaw bushes are common in the
i See also a reference to the dogwood-cross story in Guy Howard's Walkin'
Preacher of the Ozarks (New York, Harper, 1944), p. 141.
s Ballads and Songs Collected by the Missouri Folk-Lore Society, Columbia,
Univ. of Missouri, 1940, p. 102.
ANIMALS AND PLANTS 263
Ozarks, and both are connected in the hillman's mind with
sexual misadventures rapes and unfortunate pregnancies and
disastrous abortions and the like. Other plants which may be
mentioned in this connection are the lady's-slipper (Cypripe-
dium) and the stinkhorn fungus (Phallus impudicus).
The Oklahoma legislature, in 1937, passed a bill making the
redbud Oklahoma's official state tree. This roused a great storm
of criticism, because many people believe that the redbud is the
unluckiest tree in the world, since Judas hanged himself on a
tree of this kind. Some hillfolk who have no interest in religious
matters still feel that the redbud or Judas tree is bewitched, at
least in the spring, and it is well to keep away from blooming
redbuds after dark. Mrs. Roberta Lawson, of Tulsa, vice-
president of the General Federation of Women's Clubs, led a
large number of Oklahoma clubwomen who held public meetings,
telegraphed protests to Governor Marland, and so on. Some
important citizens of northeastern Oklahoma were still grum-
bling about the matter, I am told, as recently as 1942.
Some observers have thought they found a suggestion of
tree worship, or something of the sort, in the Ozarker's use of
masculine pronouns as applied to trees. One of my neighbors
near Pineville, Missouri, said of a certain bee tree : "He's holler
as a gourd ! I bet there's five hunderd pound o' honey in him!"
A gentleman at Fayetteville, Arkansas, remarked that he had
enjoyed the shade of a certain maple on his lawn for forty years
and added: "I aim to be buried under him when I die." I have
many other examples of this sort of thing. It does not seem
particularly significant to me but has impressed several emi-
nent scholars who have visited the hill country, and I set it
down here for what it may be worth.
12. Ozark Witchcraft
(jThe Ozark hillfolk will talk about crop
failures and weather signs with any tour-
ist who happens along, but leTliim men-
tion witches and they all shut up like clams. If they say any-
thing at all on the subject, it will be that they do not believe
any such foolishness. Some of them will even deny that they
ever heard of witches or witch masters.
The truth is, however, that a great many Ozarkers do believe
these things. I meet people every day who are firm believers in
witchcraft, and I have been personally acquainted with more
than a score of so-called witches myself.
A solid citizen of Little Rock, Arkansas, contends that every
good Christian must believe in witchcraft. "It's just like John
Wesley said," he told me, "if you give up witches you might as
well throw away your Bible !" The Bible, he went on, not only
requires a belief in witches but also demands that they be per-
secuted. He quoted from memory at great length, but the only
one of his quotations that I have been able to verify is in
Exodus 22, where it says plainly "thou shalt not suffer a witch
to live."
This man assured me that "witches are thicker than seed
ticks" in Pulaski county, even today. "Them things are goin'
on same as they always did," said he, "but it's all under cover
nowadays. The young folks lives too fast an 5 heedless. More
than half of 'em are bewitched anyhow, so they don't care what
happens. It looks like the Devil's got the country by the tail,
on a downhill pull !"
A witch, according to my informants, is a woman who has
OZARK WITCHCRAFT 265
had dealings with the Devil and thereby acquired some super-
natural powers, and who uses these powers to bring evil upon
her neighbors. This definition excludes such estimable char-
acters as Mrs. Josie Forbes of Taskee, Missouri, Mrs. Angie
Paxton of Green Forest, Arkansas, Miss Jean Wallace of
Roaring River, Missouri, and others of the same type. News-
paper writers call these women witches, and the tourists natu-
rally follow suit, but no real old-time Ozarker would make such
a mistake. They may be clairvoyants, fortunetellers, seers,
mystics, purveyors of medical advice, seekers of lost property
but they are certainly not witches.
Although I have known and interviewed twenty-four persons
who were regarded by their neighbors as witches, only three
admitted that they had sold themselves to the Devil. These three
women were quite mad, of course ; the point is that their neigh-
bors did not regard them as lunatics, but as witches. The other
twenty-one claim that their efforts are directed against the
forces of evil, and that their main business is the removal of
spells and curses put upon their clients by supernatural means.
These practitioners are variously known as witch masters,
white witches, witch doctors, faith doctors, goomer doctors and
conjure folks, and it is from them that I have obtained much
of my information on the subject.
Some hillfolk believe that a woman may become a witch by
some comparatively simple hocus-pocus. Professor A. W. Bree-
don, of Manhattan, Kansas, who was reared near Galena, Mis-
souri, in the nineties, tells me his neighbors thought that a
woman had only to fire a silver bullet at the moon and mutter
two or three obscene old sayin's. A lady in Barry county,
Missouri, says that any woman who repeats the Lord's Prayer
backward and fires seven silver bullets at the moon is trans-
formed into a witch instanter. But most of the genuine old-
timers are agreed that to become a witch is a rather complicated
matter.
Anybody is free to discuss the general principles of witch-
266 OZARK WITCHCRAFT
craft, but the conjure words and old sayin's must be learned
from a member of the opposite sex. Another thing to be re-
membered is that the secret doctrines must pass only between
blood relatives, or between persons who have been united in
sexual intercourse. Thus it is that every witch obtains her
unholy wisdom either from a lover or from a male relative.
Not every woman who receives this information becomes a
witch. A mother can transmit the secret work to her son, and
he could pass it on to his wife, and she might tell one of her
male cousins, and so on. All of these people may be regarded as
"carriers," but not until someone actually uses the deadly
formulae does a genuine witch appear. And thus, while a knowl-
edge of witchcraft is admitted to exist in certain families and
clans, it sometimes lies dormant for a long time.
A woman who was regarded as a witch by her neighbors
died some years ago, in Greene county, Missouri. I never met
the old lady but am acquainted with her daughter a college
graduate, very citified and sophisticated, who has not visited
Missouri for a long time. I asked this girl if she had ever heard
anything about witchcraft in the Ozarks. To my surprise she
did not laugh it off. She said that she believed her own mother
had possessed some measure of supernatural power, and that
this power was definitely evil. She had never discussed the mat-
ter with her motherQ^I always thought mamma would tell mja,
about that some day*" the daughter said, ^but she never did."
Some par.ts of the witches' routine are well known, even to
people who deny all acquaintance with such matters. The trick
of reversing the Lord's Prayer is a case in point. A pious Bap-
tist lady in McDonald county, Missouri, once denounced a
schoolmarm because the children were taught to shout their
multiplication tables backward as well as forward. ("It's plumb
risky, an' there ought to be a law ag'in it,'') growiea the old
woman. "Learn them gals to say their 'rithrn^tic back'ards to-
day, an' they'll be a-sayin' somethin 9 else back'ards tomorrow !"
A virgin may possess some of the secrets of "bedevilment,"
OZARK WITCHCRAFT 267
imparted by her father or her uncle, but she cannot be a genu-
ine witch, for good and sufficient reasons. Most of the Ozark
witches seem to be widows, or elderly spinsters who are obviously
not virgins. I knew one sprightly grass widder who was said
to "talk the Devil's language," but most people doubted this
because of her youth she was only seventeen! A woman can
"do the Devil's work'] and practice the infernalHirts in a small
way without any ceremony, but to attain her full powers she
must be formally initiated into the sinister sisterhood^
When a woman- decides to become a witch, according to the
fireside legends, she repairs to the family buryin' ground at
midnight, in the dark of the moon. Beginning with a verbal
renunciation of the Christian religion, she swears to give herself
body and soul to the Devil. She removes every stitch of clothing,
which she hangs on an infidel's tombstone, and delivers her body
immediately to the Devil's representative^srthat is, to the man
who is inducting her into the "mystery.'lThe sexual act com-
pleted, both parties repeat certain old sayin's terrible words
which assemble devils, and the spirits of the evil dead and end
by reciting the Lord's Prayer backwarcLYThis ceremony is sup-
posed to be witnessed by at least two initiates, also nude, and
must be repeated on three consecutive nights.)fAfter the first
and second vows the candidate is still free to change her mind,
but the third pledge is final. Henceforth the woman is a witch
and must serve her new master through all eternity.
(The dedication of a witch is a solemn affair, not to be con-
fused with the so-called "Witches' Sabbath" which occasioned
so much talk in northwestern Arkansas, when a group of
drunken young people suddenly decided to dance naked by the
roadside. It was a mere accident that this lewd frolic was staged
at the entrance to a cemetery. The incident had no connection
with witchcraft. The term "Witches' Sabbath" was applied to
it, not by the natives, but by an imaginative newspaperman
from Illinois.
The vagaries of some nude Holy Rollers near Forsyth, Mis-
268 OZARK WITCHCRAFT
souri, have also been connected in the public mind with the
initiation of a witch. I have examined the Rutledge photographs
which were given so much publicity by the late Lou Beardon and
others, but have never been able to find out just what happened
at the Roller camp when these pictures were made. My opinion
is that the White River nudists were merely religious fanatics,
together with a few thrill-seeking young men from the nearby
villages. Thgr^js jio evidence that theyha3^anything to do with
witchcraft?
I am told, by women who clamrtfijiaxe^xperience^ both, that
the witch's initiation" is a muchjmo.re moving spiritual crisis
than that which the Christians call conversion. The primary
reaction is profoundly depressing, however, because it inevi-
tably results in the death of some person near and dear to the
witch.
I once attended the funeral of a woman whose death was
attributed to her daughter's participation in one of these
graveyard ceremonies. The accused girl sat apart from the
other members of the family and was ignored by the minister
and the congregation alike. Witchcraft is very real to these
people. A friend of the dead woman told me that the person
who dies as a "witch's sixpence" generally goes to hell, and
therefore such a crime is infinitely more horrible than an ordi-
nary murder. It is not until after the first victim's death that
the witch comes into full possession of her supernatural powers,
but from that time forward she is able to do many things which
are impossible to ordinary mortals.
A witch can assume the form of any bird or animal, but cats
and wolves seem to be her favorite disguises. In many a back-
woods village you may hear some gossip about a woman who
visits her lover in the guise of a house cat. Once inside his cabin,
she resumes her natural form and spends the night with him.
Shortly before daybreak she becomes a cat again, returns to
her home, and is transformed into a woman at her husband's
bedside.
OZARK WITCHCRAFT 269
A big yellow cat once walked into a cabin where I was sitting
with an aged tie hacker and his wife. The woman began to shout
"Witch ! Witch !" at the top of her voice. The old man sprang
up, crossed the fingers of both hands, and chanted something
that sounded like "Pulley-bone holy-ghost double-yoke ! Pulley-
bone holy-ghost double-yoke I" The cat walked in a wide circle
past the hearth, stared fixedly at the old gentleman for a mo-
ment, and then strolled out across the threshold. We followed
a moment later, but the animal was nowhere in sight. It may
have crawled under the cabin, or under a corncrib which stood
only a few yards away, but the old couple insisted that it had
vanished by reason of some supernatural dispensation.
There is an old story of a drunken bravo in northwestern
Arkansas who was bantered to sleep all night in a shack where
witches were known to be "usin* round." He said that if they
gave him a jug of whiskey he'd sleep anywhere. He lit a candle,
and drank heavily, and felt very well until midnight, when sud-
denly there appeared an enormous cat. The creature yowled
and spit at him, and the man fired his great horse-pistol a
muzzle-loading weapon loaded with buckshot. Somewhere a
woman screamed, and the hillman always swore that just as
the candle went out he saw a woman's bare foot, covered with
blood, wriggling around on the table. Next day it was learned
that a woman who lived nearby had shot her foot off accidentally
and died from loss of blood. Some say that she died a-yowlin*
and a-spittin' like a cat !
Another well-known tale is concerned with a witch who
assumed the form of a swamp rabbit and lived on milk. A farmer
saw this big rabbit sucking his cow and fired at it with a load
of turkey shot ; the animal was only about thirty feet off but
seemed quite unharmed. The man rushed home and molded
several slugs of silver, obtained by melting half dollars. Charg-
ing his shotgun with these, he fired again and killed the rabbit.
A ffew hours later came the news that an old woman in the next
holler had been shot to death; the doctor couldn't find the
270 OZARK WITCHCRAFT
bullet, but everybody knew that it must have been a silver slug
that killed her.
Once I was riding through the woods with two hillmen, when
a timber wolf suddenly appeared in a little clearing. One of
my companions fired several times with his revolver, but the
wolf trotted unhurriedly away, looking back over its left
shoulder. "Damn it, I don't see how I missed th' critter !" cried
the pistol shooter. "You didn't miss it," the other answered
quietly. Nothing more was said, but I noticed that both men
rode with their fingers crossed. I crossed mine, too, not wishing
to be mistaken for an ignorant "furriner."
A schoolmaster from Pea Ridge, Arkansas, used to tell the
story of two young women who lived alone in a nearby farm.
They owned no cattle and were never seen to do any milking
but always had plenty of butter and homemade cheese. Finally
a farmhand peeked in at their window and later swore that he
saw these girls hang a dishcloth on the pot rack and squeeze
several gallons of milk out of it. Turning about, he looked at
the cows in a neighbor's pasture and saw that their udders were
gradually decreasing in size.
The teacher mentioned above is an exceptionally intelligent
man, not at all credulous in ordinary matters, 'but he seemed
inclined to accept this dishrag-milking tale as true. He sug-
gested that the phenomena which we associate with hypnosis
may be identical with those formerly attributed to witchcraft.
Some high-powered salesman's exploits may be of this type,
he thought, and referred with feeling to a chap who sold him
some worthless magazines at an exorbitant figure. "That fel-
low certainly got control of my mind somehow," he said rue-
fully. "We call it hypnotism now, but the old folks would
probably say I was bewitched."
An old lady near Chadwick, Missouri, flew into a rage one
Sunday morning because other members of the family insisted
on going to church. Suddenly one of the horses became sick
and fell right down in the harness. The women and children
OZARK WITCHCRAFT 271
began to cry, and the whole expedition was thrown into con-
fusion. Finally the menfolks managed to tail the animal up, and
dragged it through a stream of running water. This broke the
witch spell and cured the horse instantly, but it was too late
for anybody to attend church.
I remember a poor silly old woman who tried to buy some
of my neighbor's ducks. The price she offered was very low,
and Aunt Rosie decided to wait for a better market. "You'll
be mighty sorry," the old woman shouted. "Them ducks is all
a-goin' to die Monday." My neighbor paid no heed to this
prediction, but the ducks did die on Monday, and it was gen-
erally believed that the old witch had cast a spell on them. The
possibility of poisoning, or some other material cause of death,
apparently did not occur to any of the parties concerned. This
unquestioning acceptance of supernatural explanations is not
uncommon in the Ozark country.
Mrs. Isabel Spradley, Van Buren, Arkansas, tells me of an
old woman in her neighborhood who "throwed a spell" upon a
neighbor's tomato patch just by drawing a circle in the dust,
marking a cross in the center of the circle, and spitting in the
center of the cross. No buyer in this region, once he heard the
news, would give a plugged nickel for that man's tomato crop.
Aunt Sarah Wilson, who lives on Bear Creek near Day,
Missouri, was worried about one of her nephews, who had
wrecked four automobiles. She believed, and told several of her
friends, that some witch was throwin' spells on the boy's cars.
One day she was standing in her own backyard, when something
fell right beside her foot. It was a witch ball about the size of
an ordinary marble, made of black horse-hair. She knew im-
mediately that the witches were workin' on her nephew again.
And sure enough, he had an accident that same afternoon.
I have been told of another Ozark witch who killed several
of her enemies by means of a "hair ball" just a little bunch of
blaok hair mixed with beeswax and rolled into a hard pellet. The
old woman tossed this thing at the persons whom she wished to
272 OZARK WITCHCRAFT
eliminate, and they fell dead a few hours later. It is said that the
fatal hair ball is always found somewhere in the body of a per-
son killed in this manner. In one case, according to my in-
formant, the little ball of combings was taken from the dead
girl's mouth.
There are men and women in the Ozarks who believe that the
strange feather balls known as "crowns," which sometimes
form in pillows, are the work of witches and if not destroyed
will inevitably cause the death of the person whose head rests
upon the pillow. For a detailed account of these feather crowns
see Chapter 13.
Some witches are said to kill people with graveyard dirt,
which is dust scraped from a grave with the left forefinger at
midnight. This is mixed with the blood of a black bird ; a raven
or crow is best, but a black chicken will do in a pinch. The
witch ties this mixture up in a rag which has touched a corpse
and buries it under the doorstep of the person who is to be
liquidated. The practice of burying conjure stuff under houses
and doorsteps is well known. I have heard it said of a sick
woman that she "must have stepped on somethin' " meaning
that she was bewitched.
Occasionally the "bad thing" is concealed in the saddle or
wagon or automobile of the person upon whom the curse is
intended to fall. One often hears of such objects being sewn into
clothing, especially wedding garments. The witch's desire is to
put the bad-luck charm into the victim's possession without his
knowledge, or in such a manner that he does not recognize it
for what it is. Sometimes a pet animal or an adopted child is
made to serve the witch's purpose a sort of left-handed mascot,
as it were.
A witch is delighted if she gets a chance to walk three times
clockwise around a sick man, as this is supposed to kill the
patient immediately. It can seldom be managed inside a house,
since beds are usually placed in contact with at least one wall.
So the witch comes in the dead of night and walks in a wide
OZARK WITCHCRAFT 278
circle outside the cabin. Certain nondescript marks in the dirt
are alleged to be witch's tracks, and some people think that
by burning dry grass in these tracks they can somehow dis-
comfit the witch and break the spell cast upon the sick person.
One old woman in my neighborhood was unable to walk with-
out crutches, but whenever a chicken was to be killed she in-
sisted on doing the job herself. One of the boys would catch
the chicken and bring it to granny as she sat in her chair under
a tree. As she wrung the chicken's neck she spoke the name of
an ancient enemy of hers. I asked once what effect this would
have on the woman whose name she muttered. "Well, it won't
do her no good," said granny with satisfaction. Both my neigh-
bor and the woman she hated were supposed to have dabbled in
witchcraft, and each denounced the other as a witch.
Near Clinton, Missouri, only a few years ago, there were
people who showed marks on their legs as evidence that a cer-
tain old woman in the neighborhood was a witch. Their story
was that when they undressed to go to bed, they felt pain as
if they were being beaten with switches. One girl claimed to
have been whipped so severely that the blood ran down to her
heels. It is not clear to me how these people knew that a par-
ticular old woman was responsible for all this, but there seemed
to be no doubt in anybody's mind on that point.
A little boy near Pineville, Missouri, failed to catch any
rabbits in his clumsily built traps. "Them gums is spellt, that's
what's the matter," he told me. I thought he meant spoiled,
which the local people pronounce with a long i sound, and asked
for further information. "They aint sp'ilt" he said disgustedly,
"they're spellt/ Some old woman done it." That was the first
time I ever heard spelled used to mean bewitched.
Here is one of the old fireside witch tales, still told at Sparta,
Missouri. A young boy worked on a farm for a widow and her
two daughters. They all slept in a big one-room cabin. Several
times the boy woke up in the night and found all three women
gone, but the door bolted inside. In the morning he awoke to
274 OZARK WITCHCRAFT
find them all in their beds as usual. Finally one night he just
pretended to be asleep. About midnight he saw all three women
get up and place a pan of water on the hearth. They washed
their faces in the water, then each one said "Out I go and
touch nowhere !" and flicked up the chimney like a swallow !
When the women were gone the boy got up, washed his face in
the water and cried : "Out I go and touch nowhere !" Before you
could bat an eye he was up the chimney and flyin' through the
air. His hat blowed off. Pretty soon he lit in a big pasture, where
all kinds of people was fiddlin' and dancin' and havin' a regular
picnic. Some of them gals didn't have enough clothes on to
wad a shotgun ! . . . the next thing he knowed he was back at
the house in bed, and the women was in their beds, and the door
still bolted. It wasn't no dream though, because there was soot
on his nightshirt, and his hat was gone. He never did find the
hat. But he quit the job before the moon changed and went to
live with his kinfolks.
A woman in Springfield, Missouri, told me that her own mother
was an innocent sort of witch, who never did any serious harm,
but interfered with household tasks and the like. Some strangers
waxed loud in praise of the daughter's light bread ; this irritated
the old lady, who fancied that her own bread was much better,
and she threw a spell on the girl's baking. This all happened
forty years ago, and the witch has been in her grave for a
quarter of a century, but the spell still holds, and the daughter
has never once since that fatal day succeeded in making a really
good batch of light bread.
There is a common belief that if a witch stirs soft soap, it
won't be any good. A farmer's wife in Christian county, Mis-
souri, was making soap in the back yard when an alleged witch
came along. Immediately the woman raked the fire out from
under the kettle and invited the witch into the house. When the
witch had gone, the housewife found that every bit of the soap
had boiled away, although there wasn't any fire under it. *
Mr. A. W. Breedon, of Manhattan, Kansas, told me a tale
OZARK WITCHCRAFT 275
he heard as a boy in Taney county, Missouri, in the nineties.
There was a very wicked man living there a man who opposed
all religion and refused to help build the meetinghouse. His
family had drifted away, and the fellow was dying all alone,
cursing at every breath. Some neighbors came over to take care
of him, and while they were there a bolt of lightning fell out
of a clear sky and set the house on fire. Two big men tried to
carry the dying infidel out but couldn't lift him off the bed.
Then they tried to move the bed, but even their great strength
could not budge it an inch. Soon the house became intolerably
hot, and the neighbors left just before the roof fell in. A strange
black dog slipped out at the same time, apparently from under
the sick man's bed. When the ashes cooled, there was no sign
of the infidel's body "nary a bone !"
Mrs. C. P. Mahnkey, of Mincy, Missouri, who still lives in
the neighborhood where Breedon heard this tale, tells an almost
identical story, booger dog and all. And even today there are
folks who say that a strange black dog is seen about that region,
wherever a fatal accident, fire, cyclone, or other calamity oc-
curs.
Some old people in the neighborhood have hinted that the
infidel was really a "he witch," and that the neighbors killed
him and the black dog by shooting them with silver bullets.
Then they burned the house with the bodies inside, and called
it a good day's work. This variant of the legend also records
the detail that no bones, either human or canine, were found in
the ashes of the cabin.
There are people in northeastern Arkansas who believe that
the Devil appeared near the end of the eighteenth century, at
a pioneer settlement called Kentertown, some say as a warning
of the great earthquake that occurred there in 1812. Several
versions of the tale are still in oral circulation, and they differ
as to the town, the date, and the names of the witnesses. But
all. the stories agree that two young Arkansas boys actually
met the Devil in the brush, in broad daylight, and that he first
276 OZARK WITCHCRAFT
appeared as a headless man with a cloven hoof. Later on he
assumed other frightful shapes, roared like a lion, belched out
great quantities of smoke, and so on. Finally the Devil snatched
up one of the youths, tore out most of his hair, and handled him
so roughly that he was unable to walk. Upon this the other
young man fell upon his knees and cried out to God, asking
help in Jesus' name. Instantly the Devil vanished in a cloud
of stinking smoke, and the young man carried his injured com-
panion back to town.
Some skeptics said that the two young men had been drinking
heavily and must have dreamed all this business of demons roar-
ing and blowing smoke. But many thought that the boys really
had seen the Devil, and there are people in Arkansas who be-
lieve the story to this day. The Golden Book Magazine for
March, 1926, reprinted a pamphlet entitled Surprising Account
of the Devil's Appearing to John Chesseldon and James Arkins,
at a Town near the Mississippi, on the 24th of May, 17 '8 4.
This document was written by the two men named in the title
and printed in 1792, according to the Golden Book. Fred W.
Allsopp, in his Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, discusses the
whole matter under the caption "The Devil in Arkansas." *
An old man near Caverna, Missouri, told me tkat he once met
the Devil walking along in the snow just south of the Missouri-
Arkansas line. When I questioned him about the Devil's ap-
pearance he described an ordinary countryman blue overalls,
slouch hat, skinny face, long hair, shotgun on shoulder, and
so on. "He just looked like any common ordinary feller," said
the old man wonderingly. I pondered this for awhile. "But how
did you know it was the Devil?" I asked. The old man looked
fearfully around, then leaned toward me and whispered: "He
didn't throw no shadder ! He didn't leave no tracks !"
In various parts of Missouri and Arkansas one hears the
story of a great hole in the ground, surrounded by rugged
cliffs, where hunters have heard strange sounds and smelled
1 1931, I, 234r-288.
OZARK WITCHCRAFT 277
unusual odors. Some say that the Devil lives in that hole, im-
prisoned under a heavy fall of rock. There are stories of old
men who claim to have visited the place as children. Some of
these men swear that they heard the Devil's groans and curses
and smelled burning flesh and brimstone. Strange people live
on the escarpments, it is said, and throw odd things into the
pit at night, particularly when the moon is full. There are tales
of dark-visaged "furriners" traveling at night, who make
regular pilgrimages to the place from distant parts of the
country.
I have made some effort to locate this legendary spot, with-
out success. There is a deep canyon with high rugged walls
near Mena, Arkansas, which is known as "Devil's Half Acre,"
but the story of the Devil's imprisonment is not known to the
people who live there. Some old-timers connect the story with
Hot Springs, Arkansas, but I have never found anybody in
that vicinity able to show me the bottomless pit, where I could
hear the Devil yell and smell brimstone a-burnin'.
The student of these matters must remember that the word
witch and its derivatives are not always to be taken literally.
Tangles in a horse's mane are called witches 9 stirrups, but I
don't think the people who use this term really believe that
witches have been riding their horses. I have heard snarls in a
woman's hair called witches 9 cradles, but am not sure just what
is meant by this. The great horned owl is often called a witch
chicken, perhaps because of the belief that owls can charm a
chicken off its roost. Witch ball is a common name for a big
puffball, known also as the Devil's snuffbox; this fungus will
"hold fire" for a long time, like pUnk, and it is said that the
Indians used it to carry fire from one camp to another. Oc-
casionally a pullet lays a very small egg, and this the housewife
usually throws on the roof of the cabin, remarking humorously
that it isn't big enough to cook, so she may as well "feed it to
the witches. 99 I know a little boy who fell down and bloodied
his nose and scratched his face and tore his clothes; when he
278 OZARK WITCHCRAFT
came home blubbering, his mother cried: "My God, Tommy!
You're a sight to skeer the witches!" When everything suddenly
seems to go wrong, or a series of minor accidents disorganizes
her kitchen, many an exasperated housewife exclaims that "the
witches must be a-ridin' tonight!" But this is just on old back-
woods expression, and she doesn't mean it literally.
Mrs. Mabel E. Mueller, Rolla, Missouri, tells of an old man
who was much alarmed when his clock suddenly began to strike
at random. On one occasion it struck fifteen or twenty times
before he could get it stopped. Mrs. Mueller made some humor-
ous remark about this, but the old man was deadly serious, de-
claring that a witch was responsible. He carried the clock out
of the house at once and sold it for a very low price. Later on
a friend showed him that a part of the clock's mechanism was
broken, but the old man still believed that a witch had somehow
caused the trouble.
A young man in Phelps county, Missouri, had an old gasoline-
power woodsaw; it was always breaking down, and he didn't
know much about machinery or gasoline motors, although he
regarded himself as a mechanical genius. He always spoke of
the saw "taking a spell," and insisted that it was "witched"
by his enemies. Once he brought the machine to a farm where
he expected to saw up a big pile of wood. He had cut about one-
half a rick when the saw broke down. After tinkering with it
awhile he flew into a rage and told the woman who had hired
him : "My saw is witched ! You and your whole family are
witches ! To hell with you all !" And no more wood was sawed
that day.
Here is another old fireside tale, current in the late eighties.
I got this particular version from Clarence Sharp, who heard it
near Dutch Mills, Arkansas. The story goes that a hillman was
just falling asleep when a pretty girl appeared with a bridle
in her hand. In a twinkling she turned the poor fellow into a
pony, leaped on his back, and rode him wildly through, the
woods. Later on she hitched him to a tree at the mouth of a
OZARK WITCHCRAFT 279
cave, and he saw a group of "furriners" carrying big sacks of
money into the cavern. Finally she rode him back home, and
he woke up next morning all tired out and brier-scratched. This
happened night after night, and the hillman consulted a famous
witch master. The witch master advised him to mark the tree
to which he was tied at night, so that he could find it again in
the daytime. Then, said the witch master, it would be an easy
matter to waylay the witch and kill her with a silver bullet,
and afterwards they could get the treasure in the cave. So the
next night, being transformed into a horse, the hillman "drapped
as many drappin's" as he could to mark the place and started
in to chaw a big blaze on the sapling to which he was tied. "I
chawed an' I chawed," he said, "an' all of a sudden come a hell
of a noise an' a big flash o' light. Then I heerd a lot o' hollerin',
an' it sounded like my old woman was a-doin' the hollerin'.
Quick as a wink I seen I was home again, an' it seemed like"
here the hillman stole a furtive glance at his wife, who sat
stolidly smoking by the fireplace "it seemed like I'd went an'
benastied the bed-blankets, an' dang near bit the old woman's
leg off!"
Many people believe that a witch can ruin a man's health
by placing a lock of his hair, a fingernail clipping, or even a
photograph of him, under the eaves of a house where the rain
from the roof will fall upon it. I have heard of a woman in
Newton county, Missouri, who hung the framed pictures of
her husband's parents under the eaves during a hard rain. Just
for the record both of the old persons died a few weeks later.
A man in Joplin, Missouri, told me that his disease, which the
doctors called neuritis, had been wished on him wished is a
common euphemism for witched. "I can lay here in bed any
night when it's a-rainin'," he said, "an' just feel the water
a-pourin' on my head an' shoulders !"
To curse any particular part of a victim's body, the witch
take's the corresponding part of an animal, names it for him,
and then buries it in the ground or suspends it in a pool of
280 OZARK WITCHCRAFT
water. There was a man near Neosho, Missouri, who said pub-
licly that his prostatitis was "wished on him" in this manner
by a former mistress. Many people think that witches can, by
some hocus-pocus with the sex organs of a sheep, render a man
impotent or a woman sterile. A girl in McDonald county, Mis-
souri, named sheep's testicles for a boy who had mistreated
her and put them into an anthill ; this was supposed to destroy
the young man's virility but was apparently without effect, as
he was still going strong the last I heard of him.
Just across the river from Sylamore, Arkansas, I met several
persons who told me that there was a witch in the neighborhood,
adding that everyone was frightened but nobody could figure
out who the witch was. According to the story, a local man was
stricken by some mysterious disease, and a "power doctor"
decided to bleed him. When a vein in the man's arm was opened,
the blood which rushed out was jet black. The horrified healer
hurried away saying that the man was witched, and that no
earthly power could save his life. When the poor fellow died a
few days later, the relatives were all convinced that some woman
in the vicinity had sold her soul to the Devil.
A physician at Ozark, Missouri, tells me that some people in
that town became convinced that a man with an Aortic aneurysm
was "goomered" by a witch who had died some time before. They
called a goomer doctor down from Springfield ; he decided that
there were live lizards and frogs inside the patient said he
could feel 'em wriggling about under the swelling in the poor
fellow's chest! The ceremony which was supposed to remove
these creatures lasted several days and nights, but the patient
died.
It is surprising how seriously many people, apparently in-
telligent and enlightened on other subjects, take this witchcraft
business. I have even been accused of dabbling in sorcery myself ;
there is an old woman still living near Farmington, Arkansas,
who tells people that I "throwed a curse" which ruined* her
whole family. A neighbor of mine, by no means an ignorant
OZARK WITCHCRAFT 281
man, seemed delighted when the doctor told him that his illness
was caused by a bad appendix, and that it could be cured by
an operation. His reaction puzzled the physician, who asked
what he was so happy about. The man answered that he had
feared the pain was "wished on him" and could not be relieved
by any natural means !
Nancy Clemens, of Springfield, Missouri, told me an old
story about a man who was shot by a witch's bullet, a ball
which leaves no mark but causes the victim to lose consciousness.
This poor chap was picking apples in a high tree at the time,
and the fall injured him so badly that he was confined to his
bed for several weeks. An outsider would have thought that the
old man just fainted and fell out of the tree, but the fellow
himself insisted that he had been shot by a witch, and his friends
and relatives agreed with him.
It is generally believed that a witch acquires extraordinary
merit by burning the body of a newborn babe. Many a granny-
woman has been suspected of selling stillborn children to the
witches. My father-in-law, a physician at Pineville, Missouri,
claims that there are no witches in the Ozarks nowadays. But
he once told me that a certain old woman was trying to obtain
the body of an infant. "I think she wants to burn it," he ad-
mitted reluctantly, "and make some kind of luck charms out
of the ashes."
It is said that a mirror framed on three sides only gives a
witch telescopic and X-ray vision, so that she can watch her
enemies no matter how far off they may be, or how well con-
cealed. I have seen two of these mirrors, one of which was said
to have been brought from England in colonial days and used
by several generations of women who could "do things." The
present owners can't work the mirrors, I was told, because they
don't know the magic words.
There are many ways of detecting a witch, such as hiding
a Bible in her mattress, placing a broomstick in her path,
scratching a little cross under the seat of her chair, or adding
282 OZARK WITCHCRAFT
a bit of pawpaw bark to her tobacco. Any of these measures
will make a witch deathly sick, while an innocent woman is not
affected. Another method is to take a new awl and fix it in the
seat of a chair, so that only a very little of the point sticks
through. Then get the suspected woman to sit down in the chair.
If she jumps and cries out, it means that she is not a witch, since
a witch doesn't feel the sharp point at all.
Many people believe that witches eat very little salt. If a
woman complains that food is too salty, when it does not seem
so to others, she is regarded with suspicion. "The Devil hates
salt" is a very old saying. Farmers have told me that bewitched
cattle will not touch salt. Some hillfolk say that one can detect
witchcraft by placing a little salt in the suspect's chair ; if she
is really a witch the salt melts like glue, and her dress sticks to
the chair seat.
There is an old story that if a man kisses or embraces a witch,
the silver coins in his pocket will all turn black, but I do not
believe that this is taken very seriously by the real witch
masters.
When a witch comes into the house, raw onions that have
been cut up and peeled are supposed to sour instantly and be-
come poisonous. I have seen a housewife, when 'another woman
entered the room, ostentatiously remove some raw onions from
the table and throw them out into the yard. In this case the
housewife did not really believe that the visitor was a witch,
but she wanted to behave as if she believed it.
The backwoods witch hunters have little confidence in the
old notion that a witch must be aged, or stooped, or hatchet-
faced, or hook-nosed, or swarthy according to the storybook
pattern. There is no obvious physical characteristic that is
relied upon to identify a witch. However, I did meet one old
man, a basketmaker near Eureka Springs, Arkansas, who said
that a witch always has a "shifty" eye, and "don't never look
straight at nobody, unless she's got 'em cunjured." ,
If several persons are seated about a fire, and the sparks
OZARK WITCHCRAFT 283
which pop out seem to be directed toward one particular in-
dividual, it is said that this person is somehow connected with
the powers of evil. I have often heard this notion dismissed
lightly, as when a great burst of sparks flew directly at a very
ugly old woman, who showed her toothless gums in a grin. "Fire
Toilers beauty," she said. We all laughed, but some of the old-
timers looked distinctly uncomfortable.
Witches can make themselves invisible, as everybody knows,
but there is one method by which anybody can see them. All
you have to do is throw a pinch of dust from a certain kind of
puffball, known as the Devil's snuffbox, into a little whirlwind.
Whirlwinds are common on the dusty roads every summer, but
they are nearly always seen at a little distance. It is like the
story often told children, that in order to catch wild birds, one
has only to put a little salt on their tails.
A friend of mine went out to photograph an alleged witch, not
far from Neosho, Missouri. The old crone posed willingly
enough beside her little cabin, in the bright sunlight. When the
film was developed, the building showed sharp and clear in
every detail, but there was no human figure in the picture at all.
"It gave me quite a turn," said the amateur photographer.
"For a moment I almost believed that there was something
supernatural about that old woman !" But I reckon the lady
must have shifted the camera somehow, thus cutting the witch
out of the negative.
Probably the commonest way to keep witches out of the house
is to nail a horseshoe over the door; this is regarded as a
sort of general prophylactic against witches, bad luck, con-
tagious disease, and other evil influences. Many hillmen insist
that it doesn't work unless the open end of the horseshoe is
upward, but the reason for this has never been explained to me.
Some of the old-timers drive three nails into the outside of
a door, in the form of a triangle, to keep witches away from the
cabiri ; one man told me that the three nails represent the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost and were particularly efficacious
284 OZARK WITCHCRAFT
in protecting an expectant mother from the powers of evil.
Painting the outside of a door blue is said to be a sensible pre-
caution also, and some people make doubly sure by driving
several tiny pegs of pawpaw wood into the doorsill.
A man in Fort Smith, Arkansas, told me that his father
placed the entrails of a big horned owl over the door, to keep
witches away. And Otto Ernest Rayburn tells of a man on trial
for hog-stealing who wore "the dried gizzard of a hoot-owl tied
roun,d his neck for good luck/' 2 A hunter who lived in the
woods on Spring River, near Waco, Missouri, nailed the genitals
of a male fox squirrel above the door of his shanty. When I
asked the purpose of this he said that it brought good luck.
"It skeers the witches, too," he added, "just like deer horns."
Some of the old-timers used to make a net of horsehair a
horsehair sieve, they called it and fasten it over a hole in
the door or window. In order to reach the people in the house,
it was said, a witch must go in and out at each of the holes in
the sieve, which would slow up her activity to a very considera-
ble extent. I have seen what was left of one of these sieves, but
the woman who showed it to me explained that it had been used
nearly a hundred years ago, and that she kept it only as a relic.
Some people say that, in order to protect a building against
witches, one need only fasten two little hazel sticks on the wall
in the form of a cross. I have never seen this in a cabin occupied
by human beings but have often found such crosses nailed up in
barns, where they are said to protect cattle and horses against
disease.
A new house, which has not yet been occupied, is sometimes
protected from evil spirits by placing an old broom across the
threshold. Mrs. May Kennedy McCord, of Springfield, Mis-
souri, says that the old folks used to set up the mop and broom
so as to form a cross, in the belief that it would keep witches
out of the house. Mrs. C. P. Mahnkey, of Mincy, Missouri,
writes me that the woman who cleaned house for her always
2 Ozark Country, p. 11.
OZARK WITCHCRAFT 285
did this, when the sweeping and mopping were finished. I have
seen the crossing of the mop and broom several times in my
own house near Pineville, Missouri, but the woman who crossed
them would not admit any connection with superstition. "It
just shows I'm all done cleanin'," she said.
May Stafford Hilburn tells of an old woman who "kept the
witches away by running three times around the cabin, just
at dusk-dark, shaking a white rag above her head as she ran." 8
Some hillfolk plant a cedar peg, with three short prongs, in
the pathway to keep witches away from a backwoods cabin. It
is said that this device is particularly favored by certain primi-
tive Christians, who regard it as representative of the Trinity.
It is very bad luck to disturb such a symbol, whether one be-
lieves in witchcraft or not. Enlightened hill people may laugh
at these outworn superstitions, but they are nevertheless very
careful not to step on a "witch peg."
By all odds the most striking barrier against witches is the
so-called egg tree. Usually it is just a little dead bush with
the branches closely trimmed, and literally covered with care-
fully blown egg shells. There are hundreds of egg shells on a
really fine egg tree, which often requires years to perfect. It
is set firmly in the ground near the cabin, a favorite place being
under a big cedar in the front yard. Just how the egg tree is
supposed to drive off witches I was never able to learn. Egg
trees are rare nowadays, and many people have spent years
in the Ozarks without seeing or even hearing of such a thing.
As recently as 1921 there were two or three near Pineville,
Missouri, and Southwest City, Missouri, and I saw one in 1924
not far from Sulphur Springs, Arkansas. There used to be a
very fine egg tree at the old Jim Cummins place, on Bear Creek,
in Taney county, Missouri. Mrs. C. P. Mahnkey tells me that
she saw egg trees "now and then" when she was a child, and
that the last one in her neighborhood stood in Granny Howe's
yard near Kirbyville, Missouri.
8 Missouri Magazine (December, 1933), p. 10.
286 OZARK WITCHCRAFT
Many hillfolk believe that witches are discomfited by hearing
the name of the Deity. A woman at Sparta, Missouri, com-
plained that a local witch turned her into a calf and rode her all
over the country. Many a morning she would awake all tired
out and brier-scratched, with burs and beggars'-lice in her hair.
Finally one night the witch forced her into a particularly pain-
ful brier patch, and as the thorns tore her flesh she cried out
"Oh God !" Instantly the witch and the brier patch disappeared,
and she found herself out in a field, sitting on a bundle of fodder.
An old woman near Conway, Arkansas, told me the following
"charm," guaranteed to drive off witches, which she learned
from her grandfather:
Dullix, ix, ux,
You caint fly over Pontio,
Pontio is above Pilato !
A man in Hot Springs, Arkansas, claimed that he could stop
any sort of supernatural evil-doing, temporarily at least, by
repeating aloud:
Old Tom Walker under your hat,
Bound in the name of God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
Here is a rhyme from a manuscript book which Miss Miriam
Lynch, Notch, Missouri, obtained from one of her neighbors.
It is supposed to be repeated by one who is about to enter a
struggle or contest and fears that his adversary may be assisted
by the Powers of Evil:
God the Father is with me,
God the Son may be with thee,
The Holy Ghost is with us all
But I will rise and you will fall.
In pronouncing any of these magic words against witches,
it is well to clasp one's hands together, in such a manner, that
the thumbs cross. Some think a better move against witches
OZARK WITCHCRAFT 287
is to hold the right thumb in the left hand, and the left thumb
in the right hand; this can be done inconspicuously, with the
hands in one's lap. Either of these positions is supposed to be
more effective than the ordinary crossing of the first and second
fingers of the same hand, in the "King's X" fashion affected by
school children.
Another ancient method of discouraging witches is to take
a buckeye and stand facing the rising sun. Then, while repeating
a certain old sayin', you bore a hole in the buckeye with a sharp
pointed flint-rock. The old sayin' is a secret, of course. "I
wouldn't be allowed to tell," one woman said to me, "and there's
some dirty words in it, anyhow."
In a really serious situation the old-time Ozarker does not
rely upon his own efforts to rout a witch but obtains the services
of a professional witch master. If the witch master knows the
identity of the woman who is causing the trouble, he draws her
picture on a board and fires a silver bullet into it. This is sup-
posed to kill the witch, or at least to cause her great bodily
and mental anguish. I interviewed one renowned witch killer
who cuts a silhouette out of paper and writes the witch's name
on it. Then he very slowly tears the paper doll to pieces pulls
off a hand one day, a foot the next, and so on. Finally he snips
off the head, whereupon the witch is expected to die, or suffer
a paralytic stroke, or become violently insane.
Some operators prefer to make a little image of mud or
beeswax to represent the witch. This "poppet" is covered with
cloth once worn by the guilty woman. Then the witch doctor
drives nails into the poppet, or beats it with a hammer, or
burns it.
Years, ago in Arkansas I knew a jealous woman who tried to
"witch" the girl who had stolen her man. She set a human skull
on a Bible, and before it placed two dolls, representing the
erring husband and his light-o'-love. The poppet dressed as a
girl had four big nails driven into its back. The whole thing
was a failure, apparently ; I saw the girl several years later, and
OZARK WITCHCRAFT
she seemed in good health and spirits. In 1938 Mr. D. F. Fox,
a photographer of Galena, Missouri, wanted to make some
pictures illustrating Ozark superstition; I fixed a skull-and-
Bible altar for him, with two dolls posed exactly like those used
by the jealous wife in Arkansas. The picture was later pub-
lished in Life, June 19, 1939. William Seabrook describes Fox's
photographs at some length, adding that he had helped to de-
stroy similar hellish devices in France, in 1932. "I don't know
what Messrs. Fox and Randolph think they are playing with,"
he writes. "They may have merely persuaded some old woman
to show them how such things are set up, but the pictures in-
trinsically stink of murder." 4
Mr. G. H. Pipes told me a witch story, which he had from
Grandmaw Bryant of Reeds Spring, Missouri, in the early
1920's. It seems that some carpenters were building a house,
and the work was going very well until a certain old woman
walked slowly past. From that moment everything went wrong.
The workmen couldn't hit nails but hammered their thumbs
instead. They dropped their tools repeatedly, and one narrowly
missed falling off the ridgepole. After two or three days of this,
they called in a witch doctor. He found the old woman's trail
in the dirt and drove a big nail into one of her heel prints. As
soon as this was done, the carpenters went to work again, and
the building was completed with no further difficulty. The old
witch had a very sore foot and limped around with a bandage
on her heel nearly all winter.
A witch killer near Steelville, Missouri, says that it is only
necessary to draw a rude picture of the witch on the north side
of a black-oak tree, then drive a nail through the heart of the
picture and leave it there. All this is done secretly, in the deep
woods ; unless the witch can find the black oak and pull out the
nail, she'll die very soon.
I once knew a man who spent half-an-hour or so every evening
* Witchcraft, Its Power in the World Today (New York, Harcourt, brace,
1940), pp. 18-19.
OZARK WITCHCRAFT 289
playing with a wooden spite doll, which was dressed to resemble
a local woman who could "do things. " Time after time he would
thrust the little image into the fireplace, until the feet touched
the glowing embers, and then snatch it out again. The expres-
sion on his face was most unpleasant. I am quite indifferent to
the ordinary superstitions of the hillfolk. I visit graveyards at
night, shoot cats on occasion, and burn sassafras wood without
a tremor. And yet, something akin to horror gripped me, as I
watched the witch master's sadistic foolery. I should not care
to have that man burning a poppet wrapped in my undershirt.
Some witch masters go into the woods and pile grass and
twigs around in a big circle, perhaps fifty feet in diameter.
Then they mutter their magic phrases, and one minute before
midnight they set the ring of brush on fire. The idea is that
this somehow forces the witch to appear within the circle, and
anybody who does show up there is likely to get a silver bullet
through the guts. There are several stories of travelers, usually
doctors on late calls, blundering into these witch rings at mid-
night. Sometimes the doctor talks his way out, while in other
variants of the tale the unfortunate physician is shot to death.
If it is possible to obtain any part of the witch's body such
as fingernail parings, a lock of hair, a tooth, or even a cloth
with some of her blood upon it the witch doctor has recourse
to another method. Out in the woods at midnight he bores a
hole in the fork of a pawpaw tree, and drives a wooden peg into
the hole. Once, despite the protests of a superstitious hillman
who was with me, I pulled out one of these pegs and examined it.
The end was covered with beeswax, in which several long hairs
were imbedded. There was a circle of what appeared to be dried
blood higher up on the peg, and the auger hole contained a
quantity of fine sand. A similar "pawpaw conjure" is some-
times employed by cuckold husbands, but it is primarily intended
to deal with women who "talk the Devil's language."
In 'case the material for the pawpaw trick cannot be obtained
from a witch, some hillfolk try to conjure her with any object
290 OZARK WITCHCRAFT
that she has ever touched, or even a bit of wood or metal from
the house in which she lives. I know a man who, as a child in
McDonald county, Missouri, was sent by his parents to steal
a shingle from a witch's roof. His grandmother burned the
shingle and buried the ashes in the graveyard. But the little
boy never understood the purpose of this business, and nobody
ever explained it to him. He told me about the incident, and a
few years later I met his mother, in a neighboring state, and
asked her if she remembered it. "Yes," she said slowly, "I
reckon Tommy got the shingle, all right. But it didn't mean
nothin'. Just some of Granny Fitzhugh's foolishness. She was
awful old, an* kind of weak in her mind."
The discomfort caused by the witch master's spells finally
forces the witch to show her hand, and she comes to the be-
witched person's home. Usually she offers some apparently
innocent gift or attempts to borrow some trifle. If the witch's
gift is accepted, or her request for a loan granted, the witch
master's charm is broken and the witch instantly regains con-
trol of the situation. The safest plan is never to lend anything
under such conditions unless the borrower speaks the words
"for God's sake" it is said that a witch cannot pronounce
these words.
The witch master's immediate purpose is to check the particu-
lar "bewitchment" which is injuring his client, but his ultimate
intention is to kill or permanently disable the witch. When a
witch dies, every jackleg witch doctor in the country claims
credit for causing her death. When old Gram French was killed
by falling off a bluff, an amateur conjurer in our neighborhood
stalked solemnly about with rabbit blood on his forehead for
several days. "But ever'body knows," a village loafer said scorn-
fully, "that the pore half-wit never even seen Gram !"
Mrs. Mabel E. Mueller, Holla, Missouri, told me of an alleged
witch in her neighborhood and repeated several stories she had
heard about this woman. "A certain young man," she said, "was
trying to court the old witch's pretty daughter. The old woman
OZARK WITCHCRAFT 291
did not approve of the match, so she cast a spell on the boy and
made him very sick. The boy's folks called the witch master, who
drew a picture of the witch and pierced the head with a pegging-
awl. 'I reckon that'll give the ol' devil a headache, anyhow,' he
said. Next day the boy was much improved, and the old woman
was in bed, with a bag of hot sand on her forehead.
"On another occasion," Mrs. Mueller added, "this same old
witch put a spell on a neighbor's daughter, so that she was
stricken with some kind of lumbago and couldn't walk. The witch
doctor didn't tell anybody just what he did this time, but in a
few days the girl was feeling much better. And for weeks after
that the old witch was seen walking aimlessly about in a rocky
field, so crippled that she moved very slowly and leaned upon a
cane.
"These stories were told me by people who believe every word
of them," said Mrs. Mueller with a smile. "There was a time
when nearly all of the backwoods people believed in witchcraft
and sorcery, and such beliefs are not at all uncommon today,
even among the more or less enlightened younger generation."
A basketmaker at Eureka Springs, Arkansas, told me that
children are best protected against witches by wearing a neck-
lace of dried burdock roots, cut into small pieces and strung
like beads. Some say that if a child is bewitched despite this
precaution, it is only necessary to stand him on his head while
you count forty-nine backwards to take the curse off. Another
remedy is to strip the child and leave him naked while you boil
his clothes in a kettle out of doors. Rap three times on the kettle
with a stick, calling out the name of the woman whom you be-
lieve to have bewitched the child. If the woman is guilty, the
spell will be broken instantly.
A family named Criger, in Greene county, Missouri, had an
infant bewitched ; the baby cried constantly, but the doctors
could find nothing wrong with it. The mother was advised to
carry* the child to the front door every morning, and to lick its
face "in a clean sweep from the nose to the hairline:" This was to
292 OZARK WITCHCRAFT
continue for nine mornings, and on the ninth day the witch
would appear and try to borrow something. Her request must
be refused, and the refusal would break the spell forever. Sure
enough, on the ninth morning an old woman appeared and
wanted to borrow a cup of sugar. Mrs. Criger refused to lend
any sugar, and the baby was perfectly normal thereafter. Otto
Ernest Rayburn tells a very similar story, 5 but in his version
the mother was told to "repeat the three highest names in the
Bible" each time she licked the child's face "from nose to hair-
line." In Rayburn's story, too, it was a man who had bewitched
the infant. When this man was unable to borrow anything on
the ninth day the child recovered, but the woman who told the
mother how to break the spell "had a nice heifer to die the fol-
lowing day."
The following story came to me from Phelps county, Mis-
souri, but variants of it are heard all through the Ozark region.
An infant suddenly became very ill, and the parents suspected
witchcraft, so they called in the local goomer doctor. He mut-
tered some incantations, burned a little powder in the fireplace,
and boiled all the baby's clothing in a kettle outside the cabin.
"Don't take no gifts from nobody," he cautioned the parents,
"an' don't lend nobody nothin'." The only callers next day were
two women, one of whom carried a child in her arms. Just as
they were leaving a little shower came up, and the sick baby's
mother handed the other woman a shawl to protect the visiting
child from the rain. Later that same day the baby died. "You
must have took a gift," said the witch master, "or else loaned
somethin'." Forgetting the shawl, the sorrowing mother denied
this but later recalled the incident and admitted her mistake.
"You ought to have done like I told ye," the goomer doctor
said sadly as he took his leave.
Clothing that has been bewitched is treated by burying it in
the ground, "jest like if it had been stunk up by a polecat."
Other hillf oik prefer to wash such clothing in milk and* hang
Ozark Country, p. 164.
OZARK WITCHCRAFT 293
it out of doors over night in freezing weather ; this is supposed
to take the curse off somehow, so that the garments may be
worn without danger.
The rifle is still an essential part of the hillman's equipment,
and in pioneer days it was even more important. There are many
stories of witches who could utterly ruin a hunter by putting
a spell on his rifle. One way of witching a man's weapon is to
steal a bullet from his pouch and fasten it with string to a
willow, so that it remains suspended in swift water. The poor
fellow's rifle shakes from that time forward, just as the bullet
shakes in the current, and he can never shoot accurately until
the spell is removed.
Mrs. Mabel E. Mueller, of Holla, Missouri, told me about
a farmer whose wife was reputed to have supernatural powers.
One day the men of the neighborhood were engaged in a shoot-
ing match, while the witch woman was working near the house.
After awhile she called her husband. "John," she said, "come
help me frame this here flax." John paid no attention, for he
was an exceptionally good shot and didn't want to leave the
shooting match. The next shot he fired went wild. His rifle was
in perfect condition, but the witch had tied a little knot in the
corner of her apron. After three more shots, all of which missed
the target, John prepared to leave the match. "I'll have to go,
boys," he said. "The old woman's done put a spell on my gun,
an' she won't take it off till I 'tend to that damn' flax."
A man in Christian county, Missouri, complained that his
brand-new rifle was witched. The wtich doctor advised him to
put it in the spring branch so that the water would run through
the barrel, and not to lend anything. Pretty soon a woman
who lived nearby came to borrow some medicine, but he told her
no. She must have been the witch, said my informant, because
she had a turrible runnin' off at the bowels, and he figgered it
made the old devil sick when the spell was took off'n the gun.
There is an old story of a famous hunter whose rifle suddenly
lost its accuracy. He believed that the weapon was witched by
294 OZARK WITCHCRAFT
an old woman who lived near his cabin. All smiles, the hunter
went to see this woman and borrowed a nail to fasten the heel
of his boot, which he said was loose. Returning home, he drove
the nail into the stock of his rifle ; instantly the spell was broken,
and the hunter could shoot as well as ever.
It is said that a bewitched firearm can somehow be disen-
chanted with asafetida, but I have never been able to find out
anything definite about this method.
An old man at Berryville, Arkansas, claims that witch doctors
can write something on paper and place it under the metal butt
plate of a rifle ; this is supposed to fix a gun so that it caint
be witched. Some gunsmiths used to make all their weapons
that way ; it is said that many of the earlier Hawkins rifles, for
example, were warranted witch proof. A sort of built-in witch
stopper, as it were.
When the new moon comes on Friday, it is said to usher in a
favorable period for molding bullets ; many old folks insist that
bullets made at this time are luckier and deadlier than those
cast at any other season. It is said also that rifle balls kept in
a human skull for awhile become more lethal than ordinary
bullets. Some old-timers believe or at least pretend to believe
that the man who drives a coffin nail into the butt of his gun
will never fail to kill an enemy. The coffin nail must be one
which has been used and buried in the ground, of course.
If a man threatens you with a firearm, cry out "Poxy soxy
sorrox" and the gun will miss fire ; if it does go off, the bullet
won't hit you ; if the bullet does hit you, it won't kill you. In
the old days, many a pioneer carried a bat's heart, dried and
powdered. Some said that it would turn bullets, others that it
would keep a wounded man from bleeding to death. A bullet
which has killed a man can be used in some kind of hocus-pocus
against witches and is carefully preserved for this purpose.
Many Ozark housewives think, when the butter doesn't come
promptly, that it must be due to witches in the churn. I have
seen these women wash a silver coin and drop it into the cream
OZARK WITCHCRAFT 295
this is supposed to drive the witches out. Some people put a
horseshoe into the churn, instead of a coin. Most of them say
simply a horseshoe, but sometimes one hears that it should be a
hot horseshoe. It may be that a hot horseshoe really would make
the butter come, and not by any supernatural spells, either.
A woman near Springfield, Missouri, tells the following tale
which she had from her pioneer mother. One day they churned
and churned with no result, so the housewife took a hot horse-
shoe out of the oven, where it was kept to drive hawks away
from the chickens^ and dropped it into the churn. The butter
came instantly, and a moment later they heard loud screams
from a shanty across the road. They rushed over there and
found an old woman badly burned. She said she had fallen into
the fireplace, but the burn looked as if it had been made by a
hot horseshoe.
A lady in Christian county, Missouri, was annoyed by a
series of minor inconveniences, which she attributed to a neigh-
bor who could "do things." One afternoon somebody remarked
that if she shouted out the witch's name the spell would be dis-
sipated. That very night she was sitting before the fire when
she sensed the witch's approach. "I just drawed a good deep
breath," she said later, "an' then I hollered 'Peggy McGee' as
loud as I could ! The whole thing stopped right there, an' I aint
had no trouble with witches since."
Some witches seem to specialize in throwing spells on horses,
cattle, and other livestock. One of my old neighbors told me that
his hogs had been witched only a few years ago. When he went
to feed 'em they wouldn't come to the trough at all but "jest
lent back on their tails an' squole !"
When, a cow gives bloody milk, it is generally due to some
natural cause, but there is always the possibility of witchcraft.
Put the morning's milk in a kettle, boil it over an open fire out-
doors, and stir it with a forked thorny stick. If the cow has been
witched, this procedure will send the witch into convulsions,
and she will not bother your cows any more.
296 OZARK WITCHCRAFT
Old Granny Bryant, of Reeds Spring, Missouri, used to tell
of a family whose cow suddenly began to give bloody milk. They
talked the matter over and called in a witch doctor. "Put some
of that bloody milk in a fryin' pan," said he, "an* bile it over
a slow fire. While the milk's a-bilin', beat on the bottom of the
pan with a hickory stick." These instructions were carried out,
and people who went to the local witch's cabin said that her
back and buttocks were a mass of bruises, so sore that she could
not walk for several days. The spell was dissipated, and the
cow gave no more bloody milk.
A lady named Barnes, at Galena, Missouri, sold her cow to
a doctor. Later on she said that the physician had cheated her
somehow and demanded the return of the cow, but the new owner
refused to give it up. This angered Mrs. Barnes, and she "wished
a sickness" on the cow, so that it took to throwing fits every
day and was never of much use to the doctor or his family. "I
never wished anything on anybody yet," said Mrs. Barnes in
my hearing, "that it didn't happen !"
Many farmers treat witched cattle with a mixture of burnt
cornbread, soot, and salt. The soot is the important ingredient,
I think the bread and salt are just added to make the stuff
palatable. The water in which a blacksmith cools his irons is
supposed to be good for witched cattle and is sometimes given
to human beings also, particularly children. Some witch masters
cure a witched horse or cow by snipping off a bit of hair from
its head and burning the hair, the idea being that this will make
a sore place on the witch's head and thus cause her to remove
the spell.
Mrs. Mabel E. Mueller, Rolla, Missouri, told me of a neigh-
bor whose cow was "on the lift" ; the animal's eyes bulged, and
it had a peculiar frightened look said to be characteristic of
witched cattle. The witch master came and cut off a little curl
from the cow's forelock. Next day the cow was well, and the
witch came to borrow some soda, but the family refused to lend.
They noticed that a lock of hair had been cut from the front
OZARK WITCHCRAFT 297
of the witch's forehead. The hired man asked her about this,
and the woman said she had cut it off because it "bothered"
her.
Mrs. Mueller unearthed another witch tale, well known to
some of the old-timers in Phelps County, Missouri. A young
man wanted to marry the traditional farmer's daughter, but the
match was opposed by his mother, who was able to "do things."
He married the girl anyhow, and they had a baby. One day the
young folks were picking blackberries, and the baby was sleep-
ing under a tree only a few yards away. The husband heard a
noise, and found that an old sow had mangled the infant so
badly that it died. The boy looked at the sow and saw that it
had eyes exactly like his mother's. He accused the old woman
and threatened her life, but she denied everything. Their next
baby was also attacked by a sow, but the father got there be-
fore it was much hurt. He looked at the sow, and the animal
trotted away. The boy went home, loaded a rifle with a silver
ball, and pointed it at his mother. She screamed and begged
and confessed on her knees that she had killed his baby. Then
in the presence of all the kinfolk she swore that she would not
molest his family again, and he was persuaded by his sisters to
spare her life. The old witch kept her promise, and the young
couple raised their other children without any supernatural in-
terference.
I am indebted to Mrs. Mueller also for an account of a conjure
man she knew in Holla about 1910. He was a mind reader,
clairvoyant, fortuneteller, power doctor, witch master an old
fellow with strange red eyes. This man told Mrs. Mueller how
he learned the art of conjuring. He said that even as a small boy
he always felt that he could "do things," and one day he saw
what looked like a snake or an eel at the water's edge, in a small
creek. He approached, and the thing crawled out on a gravel
bar. A strange animal, black all over, about a foot long, shaped
exactly like a coffin, with two red eyes like balls of fire. A voice
told him to kill this creature, and he smashed it with a club.
298 OZARK WITCHCRAFT
From that day forward he could conjure. There are people in
Rolla today who remember the old man with the strange red
eyes, like balls of fire.
I have met elderly folk near Marionville, Missouri, who re-
member the doings of Granny Whittaker. On one occasion she
asked a neighbor's daughter to hold the Whittaker baby for a
few moments, but the little girl refused to touch the infant. "It
stinks," she said bluntly. "All right, young lady," cried the
Whittaker woman, "you'll suffer for them remarks !" From that
day forward the girl had fits, sometimes three or four fits in a
single day. The poor child always cried out that she saw "old
Granny Whittaker, in the shape of a turkey" just before the
attacks came on. The girl's father could see nothing, but he
often fired his pistol in the direction of the phantom turkey
pointed out by the "fitified" girl. Once old Granny Whittaker
lost a finger in some mysterious accident, and the neighbors
thought that one of this man's bullets might have somehow
struck her hand. The local conjurers and power doctors "sot
up spells" against Granny Whittaker for years, but without any
visible results. It is said that one famous witch master came all
the way from Little Rock, Arkansas, to match magic with the
Whittaker witch but accomplished nothing.
There is one case reported from the Cookson Hill country
of Oklahoma, just across the Arkansas line, where a prominent
citizen died in rather strange circumstances. Some of his back-
woods relatives got the idea that a witch was the cause of this
man's death and decided to avenge him in the real old-time tradi-
tion. The first step was to secure three nails from the dead man's
coffin; these may be drawn before the coffin is buried in the
ground, but not until after the body has been placed in the
coffin. The nails must not be replaced by other nails, and the
three holes in the wood should be left open. After the funeral
the old-timers killed a goat, removed the heart, and thrust the
three coffin nails into it. The goat's heart with the nails ?n it
was then enclosed in a little basket-like cage of wire and sus-
OZARK WITCHCRAFT 299
pended out of sight in the big chimney of the dead man's house.
The theory is that, as the goat's heart shrivels and decays, the
witch will sicken and die. If she does not sicken and die, it is
regarded as evidence that she was not responsible for the man's
death, after all.
The preceding paragraph seems rather fantastic, but I be-
lieve that the goafs-heart and coffin-nail business was carried
out exactly as I have described it. I saw nothing of it myself,
though I am intimately acquainted with some of the persons in-
volved; I once sat within a few feet of the big fireplace above
which the nailed goat's heart is suspended but did not peer up
the chimney to see if the little wire cage was really there. I was
told about this by two young, educated members of the family,
who gave me permission to publish the story on condition that
no names or identifying data were included. The man who sold
the coffin refused to discuss this particular case, but admitted
that "more than once" people had come to his place of business
and wanted to pull nails out of coffins in which bodies were lying
at the time. The nails, or screws, he thought, were to be used
in "some Indian ceremony." Well, the clan in question boasts a
"smidgin" of Cherokee blood so does my own family, for that
matter. But the persons concerned in this goafs-heart affair
have had little contact with Indians ; they know nothing of tribal
religions or ceremonials, and many of them never even spoke
with a fullblood in their lives.
Many of the unsolved murders, and many of the outrages at-
tributed to masked night riders, are directly or indirectly con-
nected with the hillman's belief in witchcraft. The Henley-
Barnett feud at Marshall, Arkansas, which killed so many peo-
ple that the governor sent troops to prevent further bloodshed,
is said to have been fanned into flame by an old woman who
could "do things." This was common talk when I interviewed
members of both factions at Marshall in 1934, although vigor-
ously denied by those in authority.
Less than a year ago I heard a man threaten an old woman's
800 OZARK WITCHCRAFT
life, because he believed that she had bewitched his son. The
boy had lived quietly at home until he reached the age of seven-
teen, when he suddenly took to robbing tourist camps and filling-
stations along the highway. "My boy was brought up honest,"
the old man said, "an* there aint no natural reason for this
here trouble. He's witched, an' I know who done it !"
Most of the Ozark superstitions are harmless enough, but this
belief in witchcraft frequently leads to violent crime. When
primitive people imagine that their troubles are caused by su-
pernatural "spells," and that these spells are cast upon them
by their neighbors, tragedy often results. Things happen in
these hills which are never mentioned in the newspapers, never
reported to the sheriff at the county seat. The casual tourist
sees nothing to suggest the current of savage hatred that flows
beneath the genial hospitality of our Ozark villages. "Still
waters run deep," as Grandmaw Tolliver used to say, "an* the
Devil lays at the bottom."
13. Death and Burial
Many trivial happenings in a mountain
cabin are regarded as presages of an
approaching death. The falling of a win-
dow sash at night, or the spontaneous breaking of any household
object when no one is touching it, is a sure sign of death in
the house. When a picture falls from the wall of itself, many
hillfolk believe that the person who picks it up will die within
the year. Some say, however, that it is just a general sign of
sickness and death for the entire household, and the individual
who happens to pick up the picture is in no more danger than
anybody else. But if anyone imagines that he hears the crash
of glass, when no breakage actually occurs, the head of the
house will meet a violent death before the year is out.
The breaking of a mirror is always a sign of seven years* bad
luck, but sometimes it means a death in the family. May Stafford
Hilburn tells us how the looking glass in her home was smashed
and adds that "in less than seven years my father died !" l
Hillfolk are always upset by any unusual clicking or rum-
bling in a clock they think that a relative or close friend must
be dying at the moment when the sound is heard. If a clock that
has not run for a long time suddenly begins to strike, there will
be a death in the house within the number of days, weeks, or
months indicated by the chimes, but there's a wide difference
of opinion about the interpretation of this material.
Any household noise of unexplained origin, if it suggests the
tearing of cloth, is a death sign. An old woman near Fort Smith,
Arkansas, told me that, as a girl, she heard somebody tearing
i Missouri Magazine (October, 1933), p. 14.
302 DEATH AND BURIAL
cloth in the kitchen. There was nobody in the room when she
looked to see, but a few days later the house was full of women
tearing up sheets to lay out her sister, who died suddenly and
unexpectedly. Those were the days when they buried corpses in
winding sheets^ l n g strips of cloth which were torn, not cut.
Many hillfolk claim to hear another sound called the "death
bones" shortly before someone dies. An old woman once said to
me: "I heerd Lucy's death bones a-rattlin' this morning so I
reckon she'll be dead afore night." And sure enough, Lucy died
that afternoon, although the local physician had expected her
to live for a month or so.
If you hear raps, knocks, ticks, or bells, with no apparent
cause for these noises, it is a sign that death is coming to some-
one near you. The famous death watch or death tick, a sharp
snapping noise sometimes heard in log houses at night, is sup-
posed to mean a death in the building within a few days. This
noise is similar to the sound made by cocking a pistol and is said
to be produced by a beetle with a singular gift of divination.
May Stafford Hilburn, of Jefferson City, Missouri, says that
it is a very bad sign for a church bell to ring "without human
hands to ring it. Calamity will certainly descend upon any com-
munity should such a supernatural event take place, for floods
or fire or other dire event may be expected." 2
A ringing in the ears the jingle of the so-called death bells
means that somebody near you is about to die. A little tinkling
sound means the death of a close friend or relative. A very loud
bell, so loud it makes the hearer dizzy, foretells the death of a
high official or prominent citizen, someone important to many
people. The Springfield (Missouri) News # Leader (Dec. 10,
1933) observes that "several Springfieldians said they heard
the loud death bells at the time of Dr. A. J. Croft's death." The
name death bells is also applied to a row of little appendages
found on the heart of a hog when it is butchered; Mrs. C. P.
Mahnkey, of Mincy, Missouri, knows about these and says it
2 Missouri Magazine (September, 1933), p. 21.
DEATH AND BURIAL 303
is important that they be cut off at once. Some people think
that if these death bells are immediately removed, the curse is
somehow lifted and the expected death may not occur.
If an Ozark girl breaks a needle while making a quilt she is
depressed ; some say that she will die before the quilt is finished,
others think it means only that she will die before the quilt is
worn out, which is much less serious, since quilts sometimes last
longer than an ordinary lifetime. But it's bad luck to break a
needle, anyhow. Most any mountain woman knows better than to
make a dress or other garment for a person who is critically ill,
as to do this means that the sick person has very little chance of
recovery.
If an Ozark woman is accustomed to fasten the door every
night and forgets to do so, she regards it as an evil omen and
is not surprised to hear of the death of a dear friend.
The woman who washes clothes on January 1 is likely to bring
about the death of a relative, according to a very common belief.
"Wash on New Year's, and you'll wash away your kinf oiks!"
said an old woman near Carthage, Missouri. I have heard many
people laugh at this idea, but I have never known a real old-
timer to do any washing on New Year's Day.
It is very bad luck for an Ozarker to hang his boots against
a wall, and many people regard this as a sign that he will not
live to wear them out. If a woman sneezes with food in her mouth,
she expects to hear of a close friend's death before another sun-
rise. A girl near Mena, Arkansas, once showed me that the coffee
grounds in her cup formed a straight line; she said this meant
there would be a funeral in the house before many months had
passed. The woman who throws an egg shell into the fire on May
1 and sees a drop of blood on the shell knows that she will never
live to enjoy another May Day. To sweep a floor after dark or
allow a lamp to burn until the last drop of oil is consumed
these things are taboo, and many people believe that they are
likely to bring death into the family circle.
When you see an oil lamp in an old-timer's cabin, very often
304 DEATH AND BURIAL
there is a little piece of red woolen cloth, or a bit of red yarn,
submerged in the oil. Some people say that this collects impuri-
ties or sediment from the kerosene and thus prevents a clog-
ging of the wick. Others think that a lamp with a red rag in it
never explodes, while oil without the rag may take fire spon-
taneously and burn the shanty down. But several old people in
widely separated parts of the Ozarks have told me that the red
wool in the oil is supposed to protect the family from death by
violence or poison.
The typical hillman avoids any firewood which pops or crackles
too much, in the belief that burning such wood will bring about
the death of some member of his family. To burn sassafras
wood is supposed to cause the death of one's mother, and
although sassafras makes very fine charcoal, no decent native
will burn it, or even haul it to the kiln, unless his mother is
already dead. There is an old saying that the Devil sits
a-straddle of the roof when sassafras pops in the fireplace ; Otto
Ernest Rayburn refers to this expression. 3
It is very bad luck to burn peach trees, and dreadful results
are almost certain to follow. I know a man and woman who cut
down and burned some old peach trees, despite the warnings of
their neighbors. Sure enough, their baby became sick a few
days later. The neighbors helped them as best they could, but
one and all refused to come into the house or have anything
further to do with the family if any more peach trees were
burned.
The Ozark children are told that if they defecate in a path or
public road their sisters will die. If a mountain woman imagines
that she sees the face of an absent friend in a mirror she expects
to hear of this person's death, and if a young girl sees any
coffin-shaped object reflected in water she is sure to die before
the year is out. Most old-time hill women were taught that
cloth contaminated with the menstrual discharge must be buried
in the ground, never burned ; to disregard this is to court dfcath
* Ozark Country, p. 157.
DEATH AND BURIAL 805
in some particularly terrifying form. For a menstruating woman
to take a bath is almost equivalent to suicide, according to the
granny-women. It is regarded as dangerous for anybody to bathe
just before starting on a journey; the traveler who does so has
good reason to fear death by drowning.
The farmer who carries a hoe into his house will cause the
death of a near relative within the year. To carry an ax into
the cabin is seldom permitted except in confinement cases, where
the granny-woman puts an ax under the bed to ease the pains
of childbirth.
I once traveled through rural Arkansas in a covered wagon
with Mr. Lewis Kelley,.of Cyclone, Missouri, an old-time moun-
tain man. We camped by the roadside every night and slept in
the wagon when the weather was bad. One morning I picked up
the ax and started to put it in the wagon, but Mr. Kelley
immediately stopped me, saying that it is bad luck to carry
an ax in the wagon bed where men are accustomed to sleep;
also, he added reasonably, it's likely to dull the blade. There
is a place low down at the rear of the wagon, on the axle I think,
where the ax fits perfectly, and that's where we carried it.
If a hillman steps over a spade lying on the ground he is
seriously disturbed by the belief that it will shortly be used to
dig his grave. The man who inadvertently kicks a rifle on the
ground will die of a gunshot wound, according to the old-timers.
To step over a person lying on the floor is very bad luck, and if
done intentionally is almost akin to homicide. Some liberal think-
ers claim that one can stop the curse by crossing his fingers and
immediately stepping backwards over the sleeping individual, but
there is considerable doubt about the efficacy of this.
A falling star is supposed to be somehow connected with the
death of a human being; in 1917 I sat one night with a fellow
soldier at Camp Pike, Arkansas, and as several stars fell the
boy remarked gloomily that he reckoned "they must be a-killin'
fellers right now, over thar." Some old folks claim to have
seen a ball of fire travel across a field and down the chimney
306 DEATH AND BURIAL
of a house where someone lay sick; this is a sure death sign,
and the patient always dies within a few hours.
When a dog under the cabin, or on the front porch, howls
four times and then stops, it is said that there will be a death
in the house very soon. If a dog rolls over and over in the same
direction, it is said that he is measuring the ground for his
master's grave. If a cat licks the door it is a sure sign that
somebody in the house will die shortly. When horses take to
running about and neighing without any visible cause, or mules
suddenly begin to "ride" each other near the house, it means
that someone is dying not far away.
If a cow has just lost her calf, everybody expects her to bawl
and pays no attention ; but when a cow begins to bawl without
any apparent reason and keeps it up, the hillfolk become un-
easy. I have seen a group of modern, educated, bridge-playing
women in Joplin, Missouri, much upset by hearing some cattle
bawling. I learned later that they had been reared in the wilds
near Pineville, Missouri, and that a man related to most of them
was very ill at the time.
It is a bad sign for a rooster to crow in the doorway ; if
anybody is dangerously ill in the house it usually means death.
If a rooster crows seven times in front of the door'without turn-
ing around, it means that someone in the family is going to die
soon, whether any of them are sick now or not.
If a hen makes any sound suggestive of crowing near the
door, it is a sure sign of death, and I have been told of cases
in which somebody died within ten minutes. A crowing hen will
excite any group of backwoods people ; I have seen a man spring
up and fire his revolver wildly into a flock of chickens, killing
several. Some people do not hesitate to eat a crowing hen, but
this man would not allow one to be cooked in his house. "Throw
it to the hogs," said he, "and if they won't eat the damn' thing,
we'll sell it to the tourists !"
Whippoorwills seldom alight on buildings, but if one (Joes
come to rest on the roof of a house and gives its characteristic
call from this position, there will be a death in the neighborhood
DEATH AND BURIAL 807
within twenty- four hours. Any sort of a bird rapping on a
windowpane, or trying to get into the cabin, is a very bad sign ;
a man from St. Paul, Arkansas, tells me that when a turtle dove
flies into a house, somebody is sure to die soon.
A bat in the cabin is even worse than a songbird, but a screech
owl is worst of all. One cry from this bird, even if it is only in
the dog run and not in the house proper, will upset almost any
backwoods family. The mother jumps instantly to throw salt
on the fire, while the older children, usually crying, begin to
tie knots in a string. "Owls don't often get into houses," says
Mrs. May Kennedy McCord, of Springfield, Missouri, "but it's
terrible when such a thing does happen." If there happens to
be a sick man in the place, every effort is made to kill the owl,
so that its body may be laid warm and bleeding on the patient's
chest, for otherwise he will surely die. A man in Madison county,
Arkansas, tells me that to throw a handful of salt or feathers
on the fire will silence a screech owl outside the cabin. "Maybe
it's the smell of salt a-burnin' that does the trick," he said
thoughtfully.
The transplanting of cedar trees is a bad business, and the
old-timers thought that the transplanter would die as soon as
the cedar's shadow was big enough to cover a grave. I have
heard of a case where a young fellow uprooted some little cedars
that a "furriner" wanted for his lawn, dug the holes in which
they were to be planted, and then hired a very old man to set
them in the holes. The old codger didn't mind, knowing that he
couldn't live long anyhow. One good thing is that cedars are
hard to transplant successfully, and most of them die before
they're big enough to shade a grave. A man told me once that
the curse could be "throwed off" by putting a flat stone in the
bottom of the hole where the cedar is planted, but others shook
their heads at this theory. I know of some boys who hired out
to transplant cedars in a nursery; these young men laughed
at the old superstition, but their parents were horrified and
ordered them to quit the job immediately.
Mrs. Marion B. Pickens of Jefferson City, Missouri, editor
808 DEATH AND BURIAL
of the Missouri Magazine, wrote me (Oct. 1, 1935) of her ex-
perience shortly after buying a country home on the Osage
River, near Tuscumbia, Missouri. "The new place is a beautifully
located farm house," she said. "We planned to move some na-
tive cedars into groupings and had great difficulty in finding
someone to do the work because moving cedar trees was known
to bring untoward happenings, nearly always a death to the
immediate family. And these Tuscumbians cited actual cases to
prove the rule. We finally found a native who was willing to risk
the welfare of his family, but he had worked on the big roads out
in the valley and had acquired a certain bravado or reckless-
ness in tempting the powers that be. This is a bona fide expe-
rience."
Mrs. Frances Mathes, of Galena, Missouri, once told me that
years ago she transplanted a little cedar on the Mathes farm.
Her young husband just grinned when he heard of it, but her
father-in-law was almost prostrated. He urged Frances to go
instantly and pull the tree up. Frances refused, and always after
that the old man felt that she was destined for an early death.
But the cedar tree is still flourishing, big enough to cover half
a dozen graves now, while Frances Mathes outlived her hus-
band and the whole Mathes family.
The prejudice against transplanting cedars is known all
through the Ozarks, and doubtless in many parts of the South.
Other superstitions about trees seem to be local, or even limited
to certain family groups or clans. There are people in southwest
Missouri who will not under any conditions plant a willow. I
once asked a hired man to "stick" some willows in a certain gravel
bar, in order to turn the creek the other way and prevent it from
cutting into my field. Without mentioning the matter to me, he
went out and hired another man to attend to this. "It's sure
death for us folks to fool with willers," he explained later, "so
I just got one o' them Henson boys. The Hensons is eddicated,
an* they don't believe nothin'."
When a big tree dies without any visible cause, it is a sign
DEATH AND BURIAL 809
that some human being will die before the year is out, exactly
one mile north of the tree. If nobody lives there it doesn't mat-
ter, the old folks insist that a man, woman, or child will die at
the designated spot anyhow. I once tried to point out the fallacy
of this theory, since one of our big walnuts had died, and there
was no record of a human death to the north of us. But an old
man, a deacon in the church, told me seriously that somebody
had doubtless been made away with by which he meant mur-
dered there, and the body concealed.
For a baby's cradle to rock without any visible reason is a
very bad omen, and it is generally believed that the child will
not live to outgrow the cradle. Many hillfolk think, however,
that the cradle-rocking has a more general significance, and that
the person marked for death may not be the baby at all, but one
of its parents, or some other member of the household.
If a child less than a year old is permitted to see its reflection
in a mirror, it will either be cross-eyed or will die before its sec-
ond birthday. If a babe's fingernails are cut with a metal blade
it will die within the year, or become a thief in later life. Most
backwoods mothers take no chances with this dilemma ; they
bite the child's fingernails off.
For a baby to lose a shoe is regarded as a very serious mat-
ter, and all the people in the house drop their other affairs to
hunt for it. Sometimes men are even called in from the fields to
help. If the shoe is not found, it is a sure sign that somebody
in the family will die.
In the Ozarks as elsewhere, of course, there are men who think
they can "smell death" many days ahead. Mr. W. H. Scott,
of Bennett Springs, Missouri, once wrote to the Springfield
News (Apr. 3, 1941) : "I was born with a veil over the face,
May 16, 1863. If there is going to be any death in the family I
know it about two weeks beforehand. Also among close and
particular friends."
To see the wraith or double of a living person is a death sign.
"One bitterly cold day," writes Mrs. C. P. Mahnkey,
310 DEATH AND BURIAL
a father and his son were gathering corn. All at once the lad ap-
peared directly in front of the wagon, busily husking out the ears.
The father spoke to him, rather amazed at his working ahead of the
team like that, and the boy replied from the other side of the wagon,
tossing in corn as he spoke. The father wondered, but said nothing.
Again, a moment later, the boy was in front. The father stopped work
and turned, and there he was, busy at his rows, the other side of the
wagon. Bewildered, puzzled, the father resumed his work, and sud-
denly the boy was at his side, snatching at the corn. But there he
was, across the wagon, in his place ! In a sudden fright and unex-
plained agony of apprehension, the father made an excuse to stop
work and go to the house, as he said it was getting colder. The boy
never helped him again. In just a few days he was dead, of pneu-
No matter what his ailment, a sick man must never be lifted
from one bed to another. If it becomes necessary to move him
to another room or another building, the bed and bedding must
be transferred also. Some hillfolk take this matter very seri-
ously, indeed, and put themselves to a great deal of trouble and
expense because of it.
Never turn a bedfast person end to end, so that his head is
where his feet have been. If you do, he'll die sure. A man who
is dangerously ill must not be shaved in bed, since the old folks
say that this is nearly always fatal.
To sweep under a sick person's bed, in some localities, is re-
garded as a bad thing, an admission by the sweeper that the
patient is about to die. Mrs. May Kennedy McCord, of Spring-
field, Missouri, writes to the Springfield News (July 24, 1941) :
"I am so bound by these early superstitions that I can hardly
get away from them, and to this day it makes me crawl all over
when I am in a hospital and they sweep under my bed. The
only comfort I get is that it isn't a broom they just have dust-
mops. And I'm still living !"
When a sick man wants to know his true condition, he touches
a bit of bread to his lips and throws it to a dog; if the dog
* White River Leader f Branson, Missouri, Jan. 4, 1934.
DEATH AND BURIAL 811
won't eat it, the man knows that he has a very short time to
live. If cocks crow or dogs howl or foxes bark unexpectedly
near a sick room, the patient may die at any moment. On
this point, Mrs. May Kennedy McCord declares that "all
the dogs for five miles around" howl just before an old settler
breathes his last, but maybe this is taking in a little too much
territory. When a sick man begins to pick at the coverlet, or
to slide down toward the foot of the bed, or to emit an odor like
that of crushed pumpkins, his death may be expected very soon.
What is more, it is said that the last person upon whom the dy-
ing man's gaze rests will be the first among those present to
follow him to the grave.
Mr. Elbert Short of Crane, Missouri, tells me that every Ne-
gro "bawls three times like a calf" just before he dies. There
are no Negroes in the region about Crane, and Mr. Short has
never seen a Negro die, but the old folks all repeat this bit of
wisdom, so he reckons it must be true.
Those attending a dying man, particularly if he is thrashing
about or struggling, are very careful to keep their fingers away
from his mouth, since the bite of a dying person is said to be
deadly poison. In many localities I heard the tale of the doctor
who was bitten in the hand by a dying child and died two weeks
later of blood poisoning.
There is a common belief that dying persons are particularly
apt to take off just as the clock strikes the hour. Some say that
more people die at 4 A.M. than at any other time. Mrs. Anna
Bacon, of Stone county, Missouri, is an old woman who has
seen many people die, and she says that "the change of the
hour," meaning midnight, is the best time to go, if one has any
choice in the matter.
I once sat with a man who was dying of pulmonary tubercu-
losis. An old woman looked at the sky and remarked that a
storm was coming, adding that "as soon as it rains, he'll die."
The doctor told me that rain had nothing to do with the time
of the man's death and said that he would probably live for
812 DEATH AND BURIAL
several days longer. Three hours later it rained, and thirty min-
utes after the rain began the poor chap was dead.
When a death finally occurs, one of the bereaved neighbors
rises immediately from the bedside and stops the clock. Every-
body knows that if the clock should happen to stop of itself
while a corpse is lying in the house, another member of the fam-
ily would die within a year, and it is considered best to take no
chances. Several families near Southwest City, Missouri, are
somehow persuaded that the old custom of stopping the clock
is derived from the Indians. When I pointed out that the old-
time Indians had no clocks, and that some local Indians have
no clocks even today, these people said no more. But they still
believe that the stop-the-clock business is based upon "a old
Injun idy."
The next thing to be done is to cover every mirror in the
house with white cloths, which are not removed until after the
funeral. This is done out of consideration for those who may
come in to view the body, for if one of them should glimpse his
own reflection in the house of death, it is believed that he will
never live to see another summer.
In some houses, immediately after a death occurs, the chairs
are all turned up so that nobody can sit in theiri, and people
who come into the presence of the dead are forced to stand. I
have never been able to find out the purpose of this. One old
man in Benton county, Arkansas, told me that it is a new-fangled
custom, brought into the country by some "outlanders" about
1880.
When a hillman dies all his bedding and articles of clothing
are immediately hung on a line out of doors. People coming far
down the road see this and know that the patient is dead. In
predicting a sick man's demise, I have heard people say "Poor
Jim's britches will be a-hangin' out most any day now !"
The hillfolk have a veritable mania for washing dead bodies ;
the moment a death occurs the neighbors strip the corpse ,and
begin to scrub it vigorously. A man may be dirty all his life,
DEATH AND BURIAL 313
and in his last illness his body and bedding may be so foul that
one can hardly stay in the cabin, but he goes to his grave clean,
so far as soap and water can cleanse him. All of the work con-
nected with a death washing and dressing the body, and so
on is done by friends and neighbors. Not one of the near rela-
tives of the deceased will have any part in these doings, except
in case of the direst necessity.
Many hillfolk make a weak tea from the bark of the wahoo
bush (Euonymus)) widely used as a medicine for chills and fever.
Mrs. May Kennedy McCord, of Springfield, Missouri, tells me
that the old folks soak cloths in this wahoo tea and lay them
over the face of the dead, in order to keep the face fresh so that
it will look well at the funeral. Others wrap the head in a towel
wet with soda water, believing that this will prevent the skin
from turning dark. Mr. Hugh Wilder, a mortician of Fort
Smith, Arkansas, says that country people in his territory often
place a saucer of salt upon the abdomen of a corpse, "to keep
the belly from bloatinV
A county nurse in Arkansas recalled that when an old man
she was attending died, she put little pieces of paper under his
eyelids, so that the eyes would remain closed. But the family
objected, saying: "We may be on relief, but we still got our
corpse money !" They brought out two old silver dollars and laid
them on the dead man's eyes. It appears that some families
keep these same coins, set aside for this purpose only, for several
generations. In one backwoods county a serious quarrel arose
which finally ended in violence and arrest for several individuals ;
peace officers said that the whole thing began over the refusal
of one family to lend their "corpse money" when a death oc-
curred in their neighbor's home.
Whatever happens, the body must never be left alone for a
single instant, for fear some animal should get at it; if a cat,
for example, should so much as sniff at the corpse, some un-
speakable calamity would overtake the whole family. The be-
lief that cats will mutilate a dead body seems to be widely
8U DEATH AND BURIAL
accepted in the South but appears to have little foundation in
fact. It is true, however, that cats sometimes show marked symp-
toms of excitement in the presence of the dead, and the hillman
prefers to take no chances.
Several young couples are usually called in to serve as a
death watch, and at least two persons are supposed to remain
beside the body, while the others may be kissing in a dark
corner, or eating the elaborate lunch supplied by the sorrow-
ing family. A jug of corn whiskey is sometimes provided for
the menfolks the Ozark women seldom drink in public but
there is very little drunkenness on these occasions. If an owl
hoots or a wolf howls in the vicinity the watchers are seriously
disturbed, because these sounds signify that one of the group
will die before the year is out.
When a backwoodsman dies, in certain sections of the Ozarks,
it sometimes happens that one of his male relatives cuts a hick-
ory stick just the length of the corpse. I have seen a hill farmer
carrying one of these sticks on the day of his brother's death,
and I have seen one tied to the wagon which conveyed a corpse
to the graveyard, but I have never been able to find out what
became of them, or what their significance was. I first thought
that the stick was simply to measure the body for a coffin, but
it is something more complicated than that, and there is some
sort of superstition connected with it.
If the weather and other conditions permit, a body is some-
times kept for two or three days before burial. But it is usually
considered bad luck to allow a corpse to lie unburied over Sun-
day, and some say that it means another death in the family.
When a corpse is lying in the house, members of the family and
near relatives generally use the back door, although other
visitors come in by the front entrance as usual.
There is often a good deal of cooking in the lean-to kitchen
while a dead body lies in the cabin proper, although friends
and relatives bring in quantities of food already cooked. But
nearly all of the old-timers believe that it is very bad luck to
DEATH AND BURIAL 315
cook cabbage in a house where someone is "lyin* a corpse."
Some say this is merely because cabbage attracts flies, but I
don't think that is the real reason.
One of my neighbors, an old fellow from West Virginia, was
buried with a silver dollar in his mouth. Why this was done I
don't know. I didn't have the courage to mention it at the time,
but several years later I asked one of the younger members of
the family. "Aw, it was just some of the old folks' notions,"
he said.
A man dying in McDonald county, Missouri, said that he
wanted to be buried lying on his left side, because he had never
been able to sleep on his back. The village undertaker com-
plained loudly about this, but the body was "laid to rest side-
ways," as one of the dead man's relatives assured me.
I know personally of an old-timer in Taney county, Missouri,
who was buried with his Winchester rifle, loaded and cocked,
in the coffin with him. His Colt revolver, also loaded, was in his
belt. This was according to his own directions, given to his
family during his last illness.
There are stories of several other pioneers who were buried
with loaded pistols in their belts, usually at their own request.
Many will remember that Belle Starr, notorious Missouri-born
outlaw, was buried in 1889 with a silver-mounted revolver at
her waist. I remarked to one old settler that this seemed to me
like "a heathen practice, probably got from the Indians." He
answered that he didn't think the Indians had anything to do
with it, and that it was no more "heathen" than the custom of
burying bodies with valuable rings and other jewelry, which is
common in all parts of the country.
Some hillfolk of Indian descent insist upon sprinkling a little
cornmeal over a corpse, just before the burial. This is done un-
obtrusively, without any noise or ceremony, and many whites
have attended funerals where the rite was carried out without
eve* noticing it. As the mourners shuffle past the body, here
and there you see one drop a tiny pinch of meal into the coffin.
816 DEATH AND BURIAL
The relatives of a murdered man sometimes throw pawpaw
seeds into the grave, on top of the coffin. It is said that this in-
sures that the murderer will be punished. Other old-timers, in
similar case, prefer to pull down the top of a little cedar tree
and fasten it with a big stone. This somehow helps to catch
the murderer. As soon as the man is punished, somebody must
hurry out and move the stone ; if the cedar is not released there'll
be another killing in the neighborhood.
Some old people cherish a belief, said to have been borrowed
from the Osages, that by burning the heart of a murdered man
his relatives may make certain that the murderer will be pun-
ished for his crime. There are whispers of such things being
done in the back hills even today, but the rumors cannot be veri-
fied, and it is not prudent for an amicable outsider to investi-
gate these matters too closely.
I have heard of several families near Southwest City, Mis-
souri, who think it is a good idea to throw chicken entrails into
the grave. This is definitely an Indian idea. Christian hillfolk
don't like it much, but it is still practiced. Usually the stuff is
placed under the coffin, and covered with dirt so that nobody
knows about it, save the bereaved family and the gravediggers.
Several methods are used in locating the bodies of persons
drowned in the Ozark streams. One way is to set off charges of
dynamite on the bank; this is said to bring the corpse to the
surface. Some rivermen just float a loaf of light bread on the
water and watch it carefully in the belief that it will stop and
turn round three times at a point directly above the body. Others
take a rooster in a boat and cruise about ; the rooster is sup-
posed to crow when the boat approaches the corpse. When
Charles Dunlap was drowned in White River, at Elbow Shoals
just below the Missouri- Arkansas line, Nov. 22, 1941, the body
was not recovered for about ten days. All three of the methods
noted above were suggested, and it is said that all three were
tried without success.
Rube Meadows, city marshal of Branson, Missouri, claims a
DEATH AND BURIAL 817
peculiar ability to locate the bodies of drowned persons. He has
boasted of this "sleight 5 * since boyhood and is said to have
found several corpses in White River and elsewhere. His method
is comparable to water witching, but no forked stick is required.
Mr. Meadows just reaches out of the boat and thrusts his bare
arm into the water. There is a strange pull or attraction, he
says, which indicates the location of the body. Mrs. C. P. Mahn-
key, of Mincy, Missouri, first told me about this, but Mr.
Meadows* claims are well known in Taney county, and many peo-
ple feel that there must be something in it.
There was no embalming in the early days, and bodies must
needs be buried at once. There were no automobiles or hard-
surfaced roads, either, and it was impossible for relatives who
lived at a distance to get together at short notice. Thus it hap-
pened that the actual "buryin' " frequently proceeded with no
ceremony other than a short prayer at the grave, and the funeral
was preached six months or a year later, when all the kinfolk
could be present to hear the minister of their choice. These
deferred funeral preachin's were held in the church house, and
the mourners did not go to the graveyard at all. Such a cere-
mony occurred near my cabin once, when a great number of
people gathered to hear a country preacher eulogize a woman
who had been dead and buried for more than a year. I have
heard of one case in which the funeral of a man's first wife was
attended by his second spouse, who sat beside her husband and
wept with him for the loss of her predecessor.
The old-timers all agree that the grave should be dug on
the day of the buryin'. It is very bad luck to leave a grave
open over night, as this is supposed to bring an early death to
one of the dead man's relatives. A woman in Sparta, Missouri,
tells how they dug a grave there for a body that was to arrive on
an afternoon train ; the corpse did not show up at the appointed
time, so that the buryin' had to be postponed until the following
day. Sure enough, as the old-timers had predicted, another mem-
ber of the family died a few weeks later. This belief is taken
318 DEATH AND BURIAL
very seriously in some places, and I have known county officials
to fail of re-election because they had callously permitted a
pauper to be buried in a grave dug several days previously.
It is strange that Lucile Morris, in describing the burial of
Nat N. Kinney, the notorious Bald Knobber leader, near For-
syth, Missouri, Aug. 25, 1888, says positively that it was cus-
tomary for the Ozarkers to leave graves open overnight. "A
handful of volunteers started digging the grave," she writes.
"They worked until they were well along, then stopped until
the next day, for few old-time Ozarkers will complete a grave
on the day it is started. That is an invitation to some catas-
trophe." 5 This statement seemed so much at variance with the
Ozark practice that I went to Forsyth and tried to find out
something definite about Kinney's burial. I located several per-
sons who had attended the funeral, but the men who dug the
grave are all gone now. Every one of the old-timers whom I
interviewed assured me that if Kinney's grave actually was dug
as Miss Morris says, it was a very exceptional case. Mrs. C. P.
Mahnkey, whose father, A. S. Prather, was Kinney's chief lieu-
tenant in the Bald Knobber organization, and who was herself
well acquainted with the Kinney family, is very sure about this.
"Lucile Morris is wrong, of course," she told me Dec. 12, 1943.
"A grave is never started unless the burial is to be the same
day."
It is bad taste and also very bad luck for a woman to wear a
brand-new dress at a funeral, but just what would be the pen-
alty for a violation of this rule I have never been able to find
out.
Rainy weather is nothing short of calamitous on a wedding
day, but at a funeral it is the best possible omen, since it means
that the dead man's soul is at rest, and even a few drops of rain
at this time go further to comfort the bereaved family than
anything the "preacher man" can do or say. Every Ozarker
knows the little verse :
Bald Knobbers, Caldwell, Idaho (Caxton Printers, Ltd., 1939), p. 216.
DEATH AND BURIAL 819
Happy is the bride that the sun shines on ;
Blessed are the dead that the rain falls on.
One must be careful at funerals to avoid counting the ve-
hicles, since an early death is invariably the portion of the
thoughtless individual who does so. Some say that the counter
will die in as many weeks as there are buggies or cars to be
counted. To cross a funeral procession, or to collide with a
hearse, is regarded as almost equivalent to suicide.
If a buryin' party is forced to stop on the way to the grave-
yard, many old-timers believe that another member of the fam-
ily will be buried before the year is out. I have known interested
persons to send horsemen on ahead, to see that gates are open
and everything is in readiness. It is bad luck also if the grave
is not ready when the corpse is brought to the buryin' ground.
This sometimes happens when the gravediggers strike big rocks
or encounter some other difficulty.
Many of the old-timers think that all burials should take place
before noon ; if a body is buried after 12 o'clock, another mem-
ber of the family is likely to die soon. But this is no longer in-
sisted upon, except among some very old-fashioned families.
In pioneer times the funeral lasted most of the day, with hill-
folk milling around the buryin' ground for three or four hours
after the corpse was buried and the grave filled up. There was
preachin' and prayin' and singin' all day long, with time out
at noon to eat the "basket dinner" which each family brought
with them in the wagon.
On no account must the mourners leave the cemetery until
the last clod of earth is thrown into the grave to do so evi-
dences a lack of respect for the dead and is likely to bring death
and destruction upon the family circle. Every one of the grave-
diggers must wait, because a man who digs a grave and does not
stay to see it filled and covered is marked for an early death.
Many hillfolk believe that deaths always come in threes, and
it njay be that two more members of the group will be "called
home" within a few weeks, anyhow.
320 DEATH AND BURIAL
There is usually a lot of gabbling and hollering at an Ozark
burial. In 1944, when Rose O'Neill was buried in the family
graveyard near Day, Missouri, there was no preaching, no
prayer, no religious ceremony at all. We just carried the coffin
out of the house, lowered it into the grave and shoveled in the
dirt, without saying a word. Some of the neighbors were horri-
fied it was the first non-Christian burial they had ever seen.
But they all did what they could to show their respect for the
dead woman, even though she was an unbeliever. Every man of
them stood stock-still until the last shovelful of earth was thrown
into the grave.
Some hillfolk become quite noisy at funerals. I have seen the
immediate relatives of the deceased fling themselves on the corpse
with loud yells, roll groaning and kicking on the floor, and even
try to leap after the coffin when it is lowered into the grave.
On the other hand, I remember one man who served his chil-
dren with popcorn balls at their mother's funeral, and they all
sat there eating the stuff within arm's length of the woman's
body. A certain amount of noise is not regarded as bad taste
at a buryin', but the old-timers do not favor long periods of
mourning. Some say that protracted grieving, at least in public,
is likely to interfere with the dead man's repose in the other
world. "The dead caint sleep," an old woman told me, "when
their kinfolks hollers too loud."
Another superstition which has to do with the welfare of
the dead is the tale of the heavenly crowns, also known as feather
crowns and angel wreaths. The idea is that when a very good
and saintly person is dying, the feathers in the pillow form
themselves into a crown, a kind of symbol of the golden crown
which the dying person is soon to wear in Heaven. Variations
of this tale are heard in many places, over the whole length and
breadth of the Ozark country.
I have seen about twenty of these heavenly crowns. Several
of them were loosely made, like inferior birds' nests. Crowns of
this type may have been faked or have come together more or
locc flrmHvn < fcil1'tr On/* r\t 4-Vo Irk/ionl-cr Vn-iill- sii.s>Ttr<rk o V\ A n -M^ii-n^
DEATH AND BURIAL 321
hole in the center, something like a bird's nest with the bottom
punched out. Another was in the form of a ropelike ring, smooth
and firm, about five inches in diameter, more like an undersized
halo than a crown.
The most finished type of feather crown, and the most im-
pressive to my mind, is not shaped like a cap or doughnut at all,
but rather like a large bun ; these are very tightly woven, solid
enough to be tossed about like a ball, and surprisingly heavy.
They are usually about six inches in diameter and two inches
thick, slightly convex on both sides. They seem to be made in a
sort of spiral like a snail shell, with the feathers all pointed the
same direction and no quill ends in sight. All of the crowns I
have seen, whether of the rough or the finished type, seemed
very clean, and I saw no grease or glue or anything of the sort
to hold the feathers together. I have pulled several of the loosely
built crowns to pieces but have never been allowed to dissect
one of the really fine, compactly woven kind. I do not believe
that crowns of this latter type were deliberately fabricated by
the horny-handed folk who showed them to me.
When the bereaved family finds one of these feather crowns
in the pillow of a relative who has just died, they are quite set
up about it, sure that the dear departed has gone straight to
Heaven and is "doin' well thar," as one old woman told me. The
crown is taken out of the pillow with great care and displayed
to all the neighbors ; sometimes there is a mention of it in the
village paper, as a sort of postscript appended to the obituary.
Some families keep such a crown in a box for many years, and
I have seen two crowns sealed up in a glass-topped case of pol-
ished walnut which had been made especially for them.
May Stafford Hilburn describes the "angel wreath found in
the goose-feather pillow of an old saint" of her acquaintance.
She makes it plain that the wreath was regarded as a good
omen, "a positive proof that the sainted old man had gone
straight to Heaven." 6
There is a farmer still living near Anderson, Missouri, who
Mistovri Magazine (December, 1933), p. 11.
322 DEATH AND BURIAL
treasures the crown left by his son. The boy spent several years
in prison but finally came home to die, and the old man exhibits
the crown as proof that the convict's sins were forgiven, since
he not only went to Heaven but went rather ostentatiously at
that. The implication is that the boy wasn't as bad as he was
painted and may have been altogether innocent of the crime for
which he was imprisoned.
An old friend near Aurora, Missouri, tells of a widow in that
neighborhood who displayed a very fine feather crown from
her husband's pillow. The deceased was not at all the sort of
man who would be expected to have a crown, and this particular
specimen was so large and perfect that some of the neighbors
suspected that the widow had woven it herself and stuck the
feathers in place with molasses.
There are stories of persons who have stolen crowns, and
shifted pillows from one bed to another, and otherwise claimed
crowns for persons who were by no means entitled to them. But
it seems to me that such happenings are rare, since most hill-
folk are too superstitious to meddle in these matters.
It is difficult for an outsider to realize how seriously this
heavenly-crown business is regarded by the old-time hillfolk.
Here is a letter from Mrs. W. H. Haney, Dixon, Missouri,
which was published in the Springfield (Missouri) News, Nov.
16, 1940:
I want to tell you that I know about these feather crowns that are
found in pillows of the dying. I have three now that I found in the
pillow of my darling daughter's bed when she passed away over ten
years ago. No human hand could place those feathers like they are.
So many of the old time things are true. The Bible teaches that there
are "signs" for us to go by, and I believe everything the Bible teaches.
I knew an old lady in Little Rock, Arkansas, who left in-
structions that she was to be buried with her husband's feather
crown in her bosom; the husband had died some thirty years
before, but she had kept his crown in a box at her bedside. *
I once took a city feller, a dealer in antique furniture and the
DEATH AND BURIAL 823
like, to a backwoods cabin where he saw a fine feather crown in
a box. When the thing was explained to him he became much
interested and insulted everybody by offering to buy it for ten
dollars. The old folks became very reserved, and one of the
young men advised me to "take that feller back to town. He'll
be tryin' to buy the stone off'n Sally's grave next, an' Paw's
a-gittin' pretty damn' mad already !"
Various theories have been advanced to explain the forma-
tion of feather crowns. Mrs. J. H. Mayes, Mountain Grove,
Missouri, published a letter in the Springfield (Missouri) News
(Jan. 15, 1942) contending that the larvae of moths live in-
side the quills, and "fasten the feathers together with an almost
invisible thread, something like the web of a spider." She says
that she has seen these larvae "emerging from the quills and
dragging the feathers," and that she has found feather crowns
fastened together with "almost invisible web." She adds "my
pioneer mother told me that moths would get in feathers and
form balls unless the feathers were periodically exposed to the
sunlight." Mrs. Mayes thinks that these crowns are not found in
feathers which have been scalded before storing them away.
Commenting on two feather crowns which May Kennedy Mc-
Cord presented to the Missouri Historical Society, later placed
on exhibition at the Jefferson Memorial, an anonymous writer
in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Apr. 3, 1942) offers the fol-
lowing theory of their origin:
A possible explanation lies in the physiological character of feathers.
From the shaft above the quill are numerous vanes composed of barbs,
and on the barbs are barbules with minute booklets on the side toward
the tip of the feather. These booklets normally are caught in indenta-
tions on the side of the barbules toward the quill. In a pillow they
are likely to become loose, ready to hook any other minute thing.
When two feathers come into contact, they are held together by the
booklets. Other feathers join them, and a nucleus is formed. Just as
feathers can be pushed through a small hole quill first with compara-
tive ase, but tip first with difficulty, so feathers in a clump would
tend to "climb" or move along each other toward the quill point. Such
824 DEATH AND BURIAL
movement would continue until all the quill points attained a common
center and could go no farther. Since downy feathers are all curved,
the tendency would be for the outward curve to fit into an inward
curve, and the feather clump would assume a spherical shape.
A man in St. Louis, who used to buy and sell feathers in very
large quantities, tells me that goose feathers sometimes "lump
up" into firm rounded bunches, varying from the size of a biscuit
to that of a washtub. These lumps have to be picked apart and
broken up in order to handle the feathers. He doesn't know
what causes this lumping but says that it can't be moth larvae,
because feather dealers treat all their stuff with chemicals or
live steam, which is certain to kill any insects that might be
present.
Mrs. Eliza Polete, of Fredericktown, Missouri, reported a
feather crown "in which the feathers were intertwined with a
light blue silk thread." And Mrs. May Kennedy McCord, of
Springfield, Missouri, mentions a crown that "appears as if it
had been started around a pink thread, the like of which we do
not have about the house, and never have had that I know of."
Several persons have told me of crowns which contained pieces
of thread from bed ticking, bits of dried chicken skin, uniden-
tified animal matter, and long black hairs. A young widow in
Greene county, Missouri, a month after her husband's death,
found a crown in his pillow which contained several hairs from
his head; this man's hair was dyed a peculiar color, so there
was no trouble in identifying them. But how did these hairs
get inside the pillow? The crowns which I have examined con-
tained, so far as I could see with a pocket lens, nothing but
feathers.
Most hillfolk seem to think that the presence of a feather
crown in one's pillow means good fortune here or hereafter, but
there are some who believe they are death signs, the work of the
Devil. Mrs. Nelle Burger, of Springfield, Missouri, president of
the Missouri State W.C.T.U., has expressed herself about this.
She says that in her childhood the people regarded feather
DEATH AND BURIAL 825
crowns as evil omens, produced by the machinations of witches,
which should be instantly destroyed wherever they are found. 7
Mr. Rudolph Summers, of Crane, Missouri, recalls certain old
settlers in his neighborhood who believe that feather wreaths
are bad for everybody concerned and must be thrown into the
fire immediately.
Mrs. Ruth Tyler, of Neosho, Missouri, is another who re-
gards the heavenly crown as a sinister thing. Writing in Ray-
burn's Ozark Guide she tells her readers: "The feather-crown
is a swirl of feathers that cling to a tiny thread or raveling.
The feathers all turn in one direction, 'clockwise' to the right.
It is very BAD luck to keep or give away one of these strange
formations. Burn or destroy them at once." 8
A lady whom I knew in Little Rock, Arkansas, never lets a
month go by without examining every feather pillow in her
house, to see if any suspicious lumps have appeared. Her hus-
band is a politician, with many enemies, and she fears that some
of them might employ witchcraft against the family. The idea is
that these crowns grow slowly, over a period of several months,
and that one can stop the whole business by searching the things
out and burning them. But she thinks that if a feather crown
ever comes to completion, the person who sleeps on that pillow
will die immediately. That's why, according to her view, one
never finds a perfect, finished crown excepting in the pillow of
someone who has died.
Mrs. May Kennedy McCord, of Springfield, Missouri, pub-
lished a letter from a woman living at Fordland, Missouri, on
this subject:
According to what my husband tells me, as I have no knowledge
myself, these crowns are definitely of evil. In fact very evil. As you
say they are never found in a finished state only after the death of
the user of the pillow and if you'll take a fool's advice you'll get rid
of the specimens you have at once.
T Springfield (Missouri) News, Jan. 15, 1941.
*Lonsdale, Arkansas (July- August-September, 1944), p. 29.
326 DEATH AND BURIAL
I was taught not to believe in superstitions, and this one I never
heard of until I came to Missouri. My husband's people have lived
in St. Louis since the days of Laclede and Choteau, and they firmly
believe in this sort of thing. But they believe that if the pillow is
burned if a sick person is using it, the hex will be removed and the
sick one recover. One of his nephews' wives won't have a feather
pillow in the home on this account. I do not like my name in the paper
but I do think people should know that these feathers are not works
of art but of the Evil One, in plain English, just a way of escaping
punishment for murder. A READER. 9
That's pretty strong language and leaves no doubt as to what
the Fordland lady has in mind.
There are many miscellaneous superstitions about grave-
yards, and I have listed some of these in the chapters on ghost
stories and witchcraft. When a man feels a sudden chill without
any obvious reason, it means that someone or something
usually a rabbit, a possum, or a goose is walking over the
spot which will ultimately be his grave.
It is very generally regarded as a bad business to move a body
that has once been buried, and many hillfolk absolutely refuse
to have any part in such an undertaking.
Dr. W. O. Cralle, of Springfield, Missouri, met an old woman
who told him that when a nearby cemetery was moved it was
found that the corpses had gone to dust, but all the hearts were
just as sound as the day the bodies were buried. Another version
of this tale, which I heard in Washington county, Arkansas, has
it that the hearts were petrified turned into solid reddish lime-
stone. If a long-buried body is found to be well preserved, the
hillfolk seem disturbed and a little frightened. They feel that
it is natural for a corpse to decay and return to dust, and that
a body which does not decay is somehow unwholesome or be-
witched. Charles J. Finger, of Fayetteville, Arkansas, was struck
by this idea ; he suggested to me that it might be a remnant of
the European belief in vampires.
An odd notion, still quoted in many parts of Arkansas, is
'Springfield (Missouri) News, Jan. 15, 1942.
DEATH AND BURIAL 327
that a green brier always grows where a Yankee soldier is buried,
while wild roses bloom over the graves of the Confederate dead.
It is bad luck to carry anything out of a graveyard. One
may move shrubs or flowering plants from one grave to another,
but the person who carries a flower outside the gate will bury
some member of his family within a year. May Stafford Hilburn
mentions a woman who picked a bouquet from her father-in-
law's grave, and sure enough her husband died the very next
summer. "To this day," writes Mrs. Hilburn, "I do not take
even a leaf from a cemetery !" 10 In 1936 a band of thieves car-
ried off many tombstones from old cemeteries in southwest Mis-
souri; it is supposed that the stones were redressed and sold
elsewhere. People at Granby and Oronogo especially became
very indignant about this and predicted that some supernatural
calamity would overtake the criminals.
In some sections of Arkansas I have seen newly filled graves
with a pick and shovel left on the mound in the shape of a cross.
This was evidently the gravediggers' idea. Perhaps it is some-
how related to the familiar practice of crossing the mop and
broom when the house cleaning is finished, as described else-
where in this book.
If a hillman happens to tread upon a grave, he is supposed
to jump backward across it immediately, as otherwise a mem-
ber of his family will die, according to the old-timers. One of
my best friends, an educated Ozarker who is generally indifferent
to superstition, surprised me by suddenly springing over a
grave in this fashion. "It isn't a matter of what I believe," he
said later, "but one must respect the prejudices of his neighbors.
If I had not jumped back across that grave, it would look as if
I want some of my relatives to die !" There are doubtless many
other persons in the Ozarks who explain their observance of
the old customs and taboos in similar terms.
i* Missouri Magazine (October, 1938), p. 14.
14. Miscellaneous
Items
~ The folk beliefs lumped together under
this chapter's heading have little in com-
mon, beyond the fact that they do not
easily fit into any of the previous chapters. How should one
classify, for example, the hillman's strange notions about the
physical characteristics correlated with honesty and depend-
ability ? There are still old-timers who will have no business deal-
ings with a man whose beard is of a noticeably different color
than his hair ; I have talked with men and women, as recently as
1936, who refused to support a candidate for public office be-
cause his hair was gray and his mustache red.
Colonel A. S. Prather, who lived near Kirbyville, Missouri,
in the eighties, always said "Never trust a man with ears too
close to the top of his head." And Mrs. C. P. Mabnkey, daugh-
ter of the Colonel, told me not long ago that she thought there
must be some truth in it. Mrs. Mahnkey also quoted Uncle Jim
Parnell, who placed small confidence in "a feller who rattled
money in his pocket whilst he was a-tradin'." A person with
very small ears is generally supposed to be stingy or "close."
If a man's fingers are straight and held close together in re-
pose, so that one cannot see the light between one finger and
another, it is also a sign of stinginess or at least frugality.
When a man begins to speak, and then forgets what he was
about to say, many hillfolk believe that the statement he in-
tended to make was a lie.
The common expression "never trust a feller that wears a
suit" does not really represent a superstitious belief, but merely
the universal prejudice against men from the cities. The back-
MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS 829
woods boys seldom wear suits. They buy expensive trousers
sometimes but prefer leather jackets or windbreakers to match-
ing coats. A woman in Branson, Missouri, once said to me:
"Them Bull Creek boys is hell on big-legged pants. Don't keer
much about coats, but pants is their pride." Many a prosper-
ous young countryman, in possession of a farm, a car, some
cattle and other livestock, has never owned a suit of clothes in
his life.
It is natural perhaps, in a fox-huntin' country, that a man
who doesn't make friends with dogs should be regarded as a
suspicious character. Related to this, no doubt, is the old idea
that a beekeeper can always be relied upon, while a fellow who
doesn't get along with bees is likely to be untrustworthy in
financial matters. But what can we make of the old saying that
"an honest man never rides a sorrel horse"? I have heard refer-
ences to this sorrel-horse business in many parts of the Ozark
country, over a long term of years, but even today I'm not sure
just what is meant by it.
There is a very old sayin' to the effect that a thief always
looks into his cup before he drinks. This is quoted in a joking
way, but I once met a deputy sheriff in Eureka Springs, Arkan-
sas, who said that he had studied the matter for many years and
was almost convinced that there was something in it. "Them
old fellers that figgered out such notions," he told me, "was
hunters an' Indian fighters. They had sharp eyes, an' they
watched everything mighty close."
In a poverty-ridden region such as the Ozarks, one would
expect to find a number of superstitions relating to wealth. If a
gray moth called the money miller hovers over you, or a little
red money spider crawls on your clothes, you are sure to be-
come rich some day. When a honeybee buzzes about your head,
it is a sign that you will get a letter with money in it, or at least
good news about financial matters. Mr. Clarence Marshbanks,
of Qalena, Missouri, says that the children used to cry "Money
'fore the week's out!" whenever they saw a redbird; the idea
880 MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS
is that if you could get it all said before the bird was out of
sight, there would be money coming your way by the end of
the week.
A person whose initials spell a word is certain to be rich,
sooner or later. A man with a wart or mole on the neck is sup-
posed to be fortunate in money matters, according to the old
rhyme *
Mole on the neck,
Money by the peck.
A woman with conspicuous hairs on her breasts will attain
riches, if we are to believe the old-timers.
Ozark children are often told that if the lucky-bones taken
from crawfish are buried in the earth, they'll turn into nickels
in a fortnight. Many a credulous mountain boy has tried this,
and one youngster said disgustedly : "God, what a lie old Granny
Durgen told me !"
The man who has an eye tooth extracted should hasten to
bury it in a cemetery, on an infidel's grave, because this is sure
to bring money within six months. When you see a lot of bub-
bles on the surface of your coffee, try to drink them all before
they disappear, for if you succeed it means that you are about
to make a large sum of money.
On seeing a shooting star, always cry out "money-money-
money" before it disappears, and you will inherit wealth. When
you first glimpse the new moon, turn over a coin in your pocket
without looking at the moon again, and you will be fortunate
in money matters. It is always a good idea to be touching a
silver coin whenever you see the moon, and it may be for this
reason that rings hammered from silver coins are so popular
in some sections. A girl who happens to see the new moon "cl'ar
o' brush" hastens to kiss her hand three times and expects to
find something worth a lot of money before the moon changes.
Like most primitive folk, the Ozark natives attach consider-
able importance to dreams, but their dream interpretations don't
MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS 381
seem to differ greatly from those current among unlettered
people in other parts of the country.
To dream of muddy water means trouble, to dream of snakes
presages a battle with one's enemies, to dream of money means
that the dreamer will be poorer than ever before. A dream of
white horses is unlucky and may mean sickness or death in the
family. A dream of death is good luck if the dream comes at
night and usually signifies a wedding, but to fall asleep in the
daytime and dream of death is very unfortunate. A dream of
childbirth is always welcome, a sign of a happy and prosperous
marriage. The man who dreams repeatedly of fishes will attain
great wealth. To dream of chickens is bad luck, and the vision
of a black boat means an early death. A lady at Fort Smith,
Arkansas, told me that she had discarded nearly all the super-
stitions of her childhood, but still felt that it is bad luck to
dream about cattle. To dream of a hoe or a rake signifies a
happy marriage. The girl who dreams always of storms and
floods will marry a rich man. It is good luck to dream of pigeons
or doves, and usually means that a fortunate love affair is just
around the corner.
The first dream that one has in a new house, or when sleeping
under a new quilt, will nearly always come true many moun-
tain girls are anxious to "dream out" a new quilt or coverlet.
The same may be said of a dream related before breakfast, or
of one dreamed on Friday and told on Saturday :
Friday night's dream, on Saturday told,
Will always come true, no matter how old.
An old woman at Pineville, Missouri, told me that as a little
girl she dreamed of a gigantic snake coiled around her father's
log house. She says this was a sign of the Civil War which broke
out a few months later, in which her father and two brothers
were killed. In 1865 she dreamed that the big snake was dead,
upon which she knew that the War would soon be ended.
Mrs. May Kennedy McCord, of Springfield, Missouri, says
332 MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS
that the best way to stop unpleasant dreams is to stuff cloth
into the key hole. But I'm not sure that she means this to be
taken literally.
Some people are accustomed to place a knife under the dream-
er's pillow, to prevent nightmares. I once noticed a small girl,
not more than ten years old, sleeping with the handle of an
enormous homemade bowie knife sticking out from under her
pillow. "Maizie used to wake up a-hollerin'," the mother told
me, "but since I put that there knife under the piller, we aint
had no more trouble." Somnambulism is related to nightmares
in the hillman's mind, and there is a widespread belief that one
should never awaken a sleepwalker, as this may cause instant
death. The Ozarker who sees a friend walking in his sleep just
strides along beside him and tries to keep him from getting into
danger, but makes no effort to wake him up.
At several places in Missouri and Arkansas one hears of
"electric springs." I never saw one of these, but persons in
Lanagan and Anderson, Missouri, told me that if you dip your
knife in the waters of a certain spring branch north of Ander-
son, the steel blade becomes a magnet. A boy assured me
that the blade of his clasp knife retained its magnetic prop-
erties for several months, after being immersed in the "electric
water" about five minutes.
Most hillfolk believe that all water which is clear and cold is
good to drink they cannot understand that such water may
carry deadly organisms. Many persons contend that any spring
water, no matter how contaminated, is purified by running over
a hundred feet of gravel.
It is said that a man who takes three drinks in three minutes
from any Ozark spring is bound to return for another drink
before he dies. In one form or another, that story is heard all
over the Ozark country. But whether it is really old-time stuff,
or was cooked up by the Chamber of Commerce propagandists,
I have been unable to find out.
There is an odd belief that stalactites or stalagmites are
MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS 333
somehow deadlier than other stones, and that even a slight blow
from a piece of "drip rock" is generally fatal. Carl Hovey, of
Springfield, Missouri, was killed years ago by bumping his
head on a stalactite and is still remembered and talked about
whenever this superstition is mentioned.
The "git-your-wish" class of superstitions is rather large,
but I don't think it is taken very seriously by many adults now-
adays. Grown people still go through the motions, but it is only
the children who really believe that their wishes will come true.
When a little girl sees a redbird she "throws a kiss an* makes
a wish." If she can throw three kisses before the bird disap-
pears, she is certain that her wish will be granted unless she sees
the same bird again, in which case all bets are off. Some say
that if one spies a cardinal in a tree he should always make a
wish and then throw a stone ; if the bird flies upward the wish
will be granted, but if it flies downward the desire will never
be satisfied.
The hillman who sees a snake trail across a dusty road often
spits in the track and makes a wish; such wishes are supposed
to come true, particularly if nobody is within sight of the spit-
ter at the time.
When a plowman hears the first turtle dove in the spring, he
makes a wish and turns round three times on his left heel. Then
he takes off his left shoe, and if he finds a hair in the shoe which
is the color of his wife's or sweetheart's hair, he feels that his
wish will be realized. Several sober and generally truthful farm-
ers have told me that they have tried this and actually found
the hair; one man said it was a very long hair, coiled up as if
it had been placed in the shoe deliberately.
Some hillfolk "stick a wish" on a soaring buzzard high up
and far away ; if the bird passes out of sight without flapping
its wings, they think that the wish will be granted. "When you
see a little new colt," said one of my neighbors, "always spit in
you/ hand an' make a wish; your wish is bound to come true,
'cordin' to the old folks."
834 MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS
Many Ozark children believe in "stamping mules," especially
gray or white mules. On seeing one of these animals the child
wets his thumb, presses a little saliva into the palm of the left
hand, and "stamps" it with a blow of his fist. When he has
stamped twenty mules he makes a wish it's sure to be granted.
In some parts of the Ozarks, where Negroes are rare but not
entirely lacking, I am told that the children "stamp niggers"
the same as mules. I met children near Mena, Arkansas, who
were stamping white horses too, but without much enthusiasm ;
they said it was necessary to stamp a hundred horses before
making a wish.
An old woman near Noel, Missouri, always makes a wish
when she sees a spotted horse, believing that if she refrains
from looking at the animal again and tells someone about the
occurrence as soon as possible, her wish will come true. "But it
won't work in Oklahomy," she said with a toothless grin, "there's
too many paint ponies over there."
If a hillman happens to see a star before dark he shuts his
eyes for a moment, spits over his left shoulder, and makes a
wish. Many an Ozarker "sticks a wish" on a falling star ; if he
succeeds in pronouncing the words under his breath before the
star is out of sight and refrains from telling anybody the na-
ture of the wish, he believes that it will come true. When the
first star of the evening appears backwoods children make a
wish, then cross their fingers and chant :
Star light, star bright,
First star I seen tonight,
I wish I may, I wish I might,
Git the wish I wish tonight!
Children at Reeds Spring, Missouri, when they see a yellow
boxcar standing still, stamp their feet and make a wish. If the
yellow car is moving, the charm doesn't work.
Some hillfolk say that if you make a wish at the bottom of a
long steep hill and don't speak or look back until you have
MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS 835
reached the top, your wish is sure to be granted. It is well to
make a wish, also, when one walks on strange ground for the
first time. Some people make a wish whenever they see a woman
wearing a man's hat.
In Taney county, Missouri, they say that the first time a
woman sews on a button for a man, she should make a wish about
that man's future, and such a wish invariably comes true.
It is bad luck to drop a comb, but when an Ozark woman does
so she invariably puts her foot on it and makes a wish. When
a girl's dress turns up accidentally, she knows that her lover
is thinking of her and hastens to kiss the hem and make a wish,
confident that it will be granted. If her shoestring comes untied
she asks a friend to tie it, and while this is being done she makes
a wish. When a child's tooth is extracted he doesn't throw it
away but puts it under his pillow and sleeps on it, confident
that this will cause his chief desire to be granted within a few
days.
When a young girl in Springfield, Missouri, finds one of her
eyelashes which has fallen out, she puts it on her thumb and
makes a wish; then she blows the eyelash away and believes
that her wish will come true.
If two Ozark children happen to pronounce the same word
or phrase at the same time, they must not speak again until
they have hooked their little fingers together, made wishes, and
chanted the following:
First voice: "Needles/'
Second voice: 'Tins/'
First voice: "Triplets/'
Second voice: "Twins."
First voice: "When a man marries/'
Second voice : "His troubles begin/'
First voice: "When a man dies,"
Second voice: "His troubles end."
First voice: "What goes up the chimney?"
Second voice: "Smoke!"
336 MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS
This done, the youngsters unhook their little fingers and go
on about their business, each satisfied that his or her desire will
be fulfilled. A girl in Stone county, Missouri, told me that all
her schoolmates were familiar with this ceremony, and that many
practiced it even after they were old enough to attend the village
high schools.
A woman at West Plains, Missouri, places her right hand on
the closed Bible, makes a wish, and opens the book at random.
She does this three times, muttering the same wish under her
breath. If the opened Bible shows the words "it came to pass"
three times in succession, she is sure to get her wish. This woman
tells me that she has been doing this for many years, and that
perhaps 90 percent of her prayers have been granted. "Of
course," she told me smiling, "a body shouldn't wish for some-
thin' that aint reasonable."
Another semi-serious ceremony occurs when the first louse
is found on a boy baby's head. This is quite an occasion in some
families, and the other children all gather round while the
mother kills the louse by "popping" it on the family Bible. While
doing this she intones a wish about the children's future pro-
fession and salutes him as lawyer, doctor, merchant, farmer,
preacher or what-not. This ritual is not exactly a joke chil-
dren are not allowed to laugh at anything in which the Bible
is concerned but I do not think many adults really believe
that the child's future is determined by "louse poppin'."
One sometimes hears cryptic references to one hillman "drivin'
a stake" or "plantin' a bush" in another's dooryard. My first
impression was that these phrases referred to what the hill-
folk call "family matters," but I learned later that sometimes
they are to be taken quite literally. A lawyer in McDonald
county, Missouri, told me that our local rich man, in a tower-
ing rage, had exhibited a "green stake" which an enemy had
driven into his front lawn at midnight. He wanted the lawyer
to see that the stake driver was arrested and flung into jail.
"He thought the fellow had made a wish on the stake, or some-
MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS 887
thing," the attorney chuckled. "A kind of spooky business. No
sense to it at all. I just threw the stake in the fire, an' advised
my client to go back home an* forget it."
In the Taney County Republican, a weekly newspaper pub-
lished at Forsyth, Missouri, Feb. 20, 1941, appeared the fol-
lowing bit of gossip: "Rita Reynolds and Arnold Davis are
planning on planting a tree in Alvin Huff's yard." The neigh-
bors told me that Rita had been "goin' with" Alvin, but the two
had quarreled, and now she was "goin' with" Arnold Davis in-
stead. Some members of the Huff family were said to be con-
siderably displeased about this item in the Republican. But
nobody seemed willing to tell me just what was meant by it.
Some hillfolk believe that if the cicadas or "locusts" have a
black W on their wings it is a sure sign of war. Mrs. May Ken-
nedy McCord insists that there is something in this notion and
recalls that she saw the fatal W on locusts' wings the year of
the Spanish-American War. 1
An old man near Bentonville, Arkansas, told me that it was
no trouble to predict the result of any national election. If
the Democrats are going to win, every garden is full of dog
fennel; if a Republican victory is in the cards, dog fennel will
be scarce, and plantain will choke every fence corner in Arkan-
sas which God forbid ! Asked about the best method of doping
out the Democratic primaries, the old chap just grinned and
shook his head.
During the presidential campaign of 1928, many Ozarkers
saw a strange light in the sky, doubtless the aurora borealis. Some
people in Christian county, Missouri, were very much frightened ;
they thought the end of the world was at hand, so they held a big
prayer-meeting. Clay Fulks, a professor at Commonwealth Col-
lege, near Mena, Arkansas, told me that his neighbors believed
that the light was a sign from God Almighty, warning the peo-
ple not to vote for Al Smith.
Iji the early days of the New Deal, many Holy Roller preach-
i Springfield (Missouri) News $ Leader, Jan. 4, 1933.
338 MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS
ers wandered through the backwoods of Missouri and Arkansas
denouncing the "Blue Eagle" of the NRA, claiming that it was
the evil sign described in the Apocalypse. The Joplin (Missouri)
Globe (Aug. 29, 1933) discussed this matter seriously at some
length, estimating that "between 20 and 25 percent of the pop-
ulation of the foothill region" identified the NRA symbol with
the seven-headed beast of doom mentioned by St. John. In 194*2
I heard one of these fellows in the courtyard at Galena, Mis-
souri, preaching against the government sugar rationing; he
placed great emphasis upon the "mark" or "stamp" which he
said was predicted in the Bible. "Right over thar at Troy Stone's
store," he cried, "you caint even git a little poke o' sugar
without that stamp !"
Many Ozarkers feel that there is some religious or political
significance connected with any unusual mark on an egg shell,
and such marks are carefully studied. Old-timers in southern
Missouri and northern Arkansas still talk of the "hen-egg re-
vivals" which swept over this region in pioneer days. The story
goes that some old woman found an egg with the words "Judg-
ment is at Hand" plainly marked on the shell. Ministers of vari-
ous sects came long distances to examine this egg and preached
about it. The general impression prevailed that it was a "token"
or omen and meant that the end of the world was soon to come.
People became very religious for awhile, but after a year or
so had passed and nothing happened, the excitement gradu-
ally died down, and the "hen-egg revival" was regarded as a
sort of joke.
As recently as 1935 a similar excitement arose in the village
of Couch, Missouri, when Mrs. Henry Bennett found an egg
imprinted with the phrase "Here my Word 35." Viewing this
as a religious portent, Mrs. Bennett told her neighbors about
it. "A wave of excited piety overtook Couch," reports Time,
Feb. 4, 1935. "To Mrs. Bennett's home went visitor after
visitor, to emit fervent prayers. When, in a fit of devout jitters,
a female preacher dropped the egg and broke it, Mrs. Bennett
MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS 339
succeeded in gluing enough pieces on another egg so that the
words were still visible." Mrs. Bennett said that she did not
know what the egg meant, but "it was sent to us for some good
reason, and there is no need for the children of God to be
afraid."
A woman once showed me a strange scar, something like a
Chinese ideograph, on an egg shell. Later she told me privately
that her husband, who was a Pentecostal preacher, had fallen
into a trance at sight of the "inscription" and translated it.
The message stated, he said, that Jesus Christ was going to
visit the United States, run for President on the Democratic
ticket, and "stump the whole State of Arkansas !"
Well, so much for superstition in the Ozark country. When I
began to collect material for this book, more than twenty-five
years ago, it seemed to me that these old folk beliefs were dis-
appearing very rapidly and would soon be rejected and forgot-
ten. I intimated as much in my first paper on the subject, pub-
lished in 1927. 2 We all talked at length about scientific progress,
and enlightenment, and the obvious effect of popular education.
But now, I am not so sure. I am not so sure about anything,
nowadays.
2 Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 40 (1927), pp. 78-98.
Bibliography
Not many studies of Ozark supersti-
tion have been published. The titles listed below make up the entire
literature of the subject, so far as I know.
There are several important manuscript collections. Dr. Benjamin
A. Cartwright, of Norman, Oklahoma, has more than 80,000 super-
stitions typed on cards, and some of these items were collected in
Barry and McDonald counties, Missouri, where he lived for many
years. Mrs. Mabel E. Mueller, of Rolla, Missouri, showed me a large
file of ghost stories and witch tales, mostly from Phelps county, Mis-
souri. Mrs. Isabel France, of Mountainburg, Arkansas, recorded a lot
of folk remedies in the backwoods of northwest Arkansas. Mr. Otto
Ernest Rayburn, of Eureka Springs, Arkansas, has much unpub-
lished material, and so has Mrs. May Kennedy McCord, of Spring-
field, Missouri. A considerable amount of miscellaneous information
about folklore was assembled by the Federal Writers' Project in the
1930's; this material has since been delivered to the Library of Con-
gress, where it is being worked over by Dr. B. A. Botkin, formerly
a professor at the University of Oklahoma, editor of A Treasury of
American Folklore (New York, 1944; 932 pp.)
Allsopp, Fred W. Folklore of Romantic Arkansas. New York, Grolier
Society, 1931. 2 vols., 333, 371 pp.
Only one short chapter entitled "Some Early Superstitions" (II, 121-128)
is ostensibly devoted to this subject, but both volumes contain much inter-
esting information. Badly indexed, no documentation. Allsopp was manag-
ing editor of the Arkansas Gazette in Little Rock for many years.
Arkansas, a Guide to the State. New York, Hastings House, 1941.
447 pp.
Compiled by the Federal Writers' Project, sponsored and copyrighted by
the Secretary of State at Little Rock, Arkansas. The word "superstition"
does not appear in the index, but there is a brief section (pp. 97-102) en-
titled "Folklore and Folkways" which contains a few items.
Barker, Catherine S. Yesterday Today; Life in the Ozarks. Caldwell,
Idaho, Caxton Printers, Ltd., 1941. 263 pp.
Chapter XV, pp. 241-253, is entitled "Superstition" and contains a list of
Ozark folk beliefs. Mrs. Barker lived at Batesville, Arkansas, for eleven
years, and was a case worker for the Federal Emergency Relief Adminis-
tration ; she collected the material for this book in the country near Bates-
ville.
844 BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bauersfeld, "Mirandy." Breezes from Persimmon Holler. Holly-
wood, California, Printed by the Oxford Press, 1943. 207 pp.
Behymer, F. A. 'The Legend Lady of the Ozarks," St. Louis Post-
Dispatch, St. Louis, Missouri, July 7> 1943, p. 3-C.
Brief article about Mrs. Mabel E. Mueller, of Rolla, Missouri, and her
studies of witchcraft and other Ozark superstition.
Broadfoot, Lennis L. Pioneers of the Ozarks. Caldwell, Idaho, Caxton
Printers, Ltd., 1944. 195 pp.
Charcoal portraits of elderly Ozarkers, with names and addresses attached.
There is a page of printed matter opposite each drawing, usually a direct
quotation from the subject. Note references to superstition, pp. 28, 30, 40,
100, 142, and 146. Broadfoot is a self-taught artist, a native of Shannon
county, Missouri.
Clemens, Nancy. Girl Scouts in the Ozarks. New York, Alfred A.
Knopf, 1936. 233 pp.
"Grandma's Charm String," Mothers' Home Life, Winona,
Minnesota (November, 1936), pp. 3, 11.
"Heavenly Crown," University Review, University of Kansas
City, Kansas City, Missouri (Summer, 1937), pp. 263-266.
"Mountain Sibyl," University Review, University of Kansas
City, Kansas City, Missouri (Winter, 1937), pp. 105-107. Re-
printed in Lowry C. Wimberly's Mid Country, University of Ne-
braska Press, Lincoln, Neb., 1945, pp. 403-406.
"Taking My Medicine," Atlantic Monthly (February, 1938),
pp. 265-266.
A native of Cedar County, Missouri, Miss Clemens does features for the
Kansas City Star and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and has written several
books and numerous magazine articles. What she says about superstition is
trustworthy, because this material has come to her from kinfolk and in-
timates. She lives in Springfield, Missouri.
Cralle, Walter O. "Social Change and Isolation in the Ozark Moun-
tain Region of Missouri," American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 41,
No. 4 (January, 1936), pp. 435-446.
This is an abstract of a Ph.D thesis, presented at the University of Minne-
sota in 1934. Cralle refers briefly to "the geographic configuration of myth,
superstition, magical practices, and a wealth of folklore which still abounds
in the more isolated sections" but does not treat this material in detail. Al-
most the only groups available for study are those in schoolrooms, he says,
"and here superstition, as well as dialect, finds itself in strained and hostile
environment. It seems to the writer that superstition is more widespread
and tenacious than dialect because less often exposed to criticism and ridi-
cule." Dr. Cralle teaches sociology at the Southwest Missouri Teachers Col-
BIBLIOGRAPHY 845
lege, Springfield, Missouri, and has considerable firsthand knowledge of the
hillbilly population.
Davis, Clyde Brion. The Arkansas. New York, Farrar and Rinehart,
1940.340pp.
One short section (pp. 216-221) is devoted to folk beliefs. "Many of the
superstitions prevalent in the Ozarks have some universality," writes Davis.
"Others are, I believe, peculiar to that region."
DeHaven, Pearl. "Add Folklore/' Country Gentleman (May, 1944),
p. 2.
A brief letter to supplement "Folklore on the Farm" by Moran and Gale
Tudury, in the March, 1944, issue of Country Gentleman. The Tudury
article dealt with rural America in general, but Mrs. DeHaven adds a
number of Ozark items. She lives in Greene County, Missouri.
Finger, Charles J. Ozark Fantasia. Fayetteville, Arkansas, Golden
Horseman Press, 1927. 342 pp.
The sketch entitled "As to the Well Walter Dug," pp. 125-130, deals with
water witches.
France, Isabel. "The Hills of Home," a weekly column in the South-
west Times-Record, daily newspaper published at Fort Smith,
Arkansas, April, 1936 .
Mrs. France now lives near Mountainburg, Arkansas, but was formerly a
resident of Van Buren and taught several country schools in that vicinity,
where she will be remembered as Isabel Spradley. She refers to supersti-
tions only incidentally, but what she has to say is always worth attention.
Mrs. France knows vastly more about Ozark folklore than most people who
have written on the subject.
Hilburn, May Stafford. "Traditional Beliefs of the Hill People, Mis-
souri Magazine, Jefferson City, Missouri (September, 1933),
pp. 20-21.
"Rites and Sayings of Pioneer Folk," Missouri Magazine, Jef-
ferson City, Missouri (October, 1933), pp. 14-15.
"Culled from My Memory Box," Missouri Magazine, Jefferson
City, Missouri (December, 1933), pp. 10-11.
Mrs. Hilburn is a native Ozarker, who makes her home at Jefferson City,
Missouri. She is inclined to be sentimental and poetic in her writing, but
these three papers contain a great deal of valuable material, much of it
derived from the author's childhood experience.
Hogue, Wayman. "Don't Pity the Mountaineer," New York Herald-
Tribune, Feb. 22, 1931, pp. 13-15.
This article is reprinted in my Ozark Anthology (Caldwell, Idaho, Caxton
Printers, Ltd., 1940), pp. 241-256. It contains some good witchcraft
references.
346 BIBLIOGRAPHY
Back Yonder, an Ozark Chronicle. New York, Minton, Balch &
Co., 1932. 303 pp.
One of the finest nonfiction books ever written about the Ozark country.
Hogue is a native of Van Buren County, Arkansas. He knows the truth
about this region, and sets it down without any sentimental twaddle. Chap-
ter XX, pp. 270-285, is entitled "Folklore and Superstition," but other
valuable items are scattered throughout the book.
Lain, Myrtle. "A Dummy Supper in the Ozarks," Arcadian Maga-
zine, Eminence, Missouri (August, 1931), pp. 910.
Miss Lain's material came from Old Linn Creek, Missouri.
Lyon, Marguerite. And Green Grass Grows All Around. New York,
Indianapolis, Bobbs-Merrill, 1942. 307 pp.
Chapter 23, pp. 200-210, "The Seer of the Ozarks," is apparently an account
of the author's interview with Josie Forbes, the "Witch of Taskee."
Fresh from the Hills. New York, Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1945.
283 pp.
This author, who writes for the Chicago Tribune, spent some time in the
hills near Mountain View, Missouri, and now lives at Eureka Springs,
Arkansas. The section entitled "Don't Believe It," pp. 120-130, is devoted
to Ozark superstitions and folk remedies.
McCord, May Kennedy, "Hillbilly Heartbeats/' weekly column in
the Springfield (Missouri) Leader-News, 1932-1938; appeared
thrice weekly in the Springfield (Missouri) News, 1938-1942.
This column was made up almost entirely of old songs, pioneer reminis-
cences, folk remedies, ghost stories, and the like, sent in by Mrs. McCord's
fans in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas, and th'e files afford a
vast reservoir of interesting material. Mrs. McCord was reared at Galena,
in Stone county, Missouri, and both her family and that of her husband
are well known in this vicinity, while she has "kinfolks an 5 connection" all
over the Ozark country. She lectured on Ozark folklore in many places,
played her guitar, and sang old songs at all the folk festivals and similar
gatherings. Since 1942 Mrs. McCord has engaged in radio work and is heard
on KWK in St. Louis and KWTO in Springfield, Missouri.
Mahnkey, Mary Elizabeth. "In the Hills/' Springfield (Missouri)
News, and the Springfield (Missouri) Leader fy Press, 1932 .
Brief articles scattered at frequent but irregular intervals through the files
of the two newspapers noted above. Many of these sketches contain im-
portant references to superstition.
"When Roseville Was Young," White River Leader, Branson,
Missouri, July 27, 1933 March 22, 1934.
A leisurely series of reminiscences in a little weekly paper. Mrs. Mahnkey
was born at Harrison, Arkansas, but grew up in Taney county, Missouri,
BIBLIOGRAPHY 847
near Kirbyville which Is the Roseville of her story. It is a true chronicle,
from the early 1880's down to the middle 1930's. A valuable source of in-
formation about folklore and old customs.
Martin, Roxie. "May Day Superstitions," Arcadian Magazine, Emi-
nence, Missouri (May, 1932), pp. 14-15.
It appears that Mrs. Martin once lived at Lanagan or Anderson, in Mc-
Donald county, Missouri, and gathered much of her material in that
vicinity.
Missouri, a Guide to the "Show Me" State. New York, Duell, Sloan
& Pearce, 1941. 625 pp.
Compiled by the Writers' Project in Missouri, sponsored and copyrighted
by the Missouri State Highway Department. Old-time superstitions are
mentioned on pp. 63, 136-139, and 534.
Moore, Tom. Mysterious Tales and Legends of the Ozarks. Phila-
delphia, Dorrance & Co., 1938. 148 pp.
There are seven ghost stories in this book, all set in southwest Missouri.
The names of the central characters are thinly disguised, and in many cases
the place names are not disguised at all. The author is a prominent attorney
in Christian county, Missouri.
Mueller, Mabel E. "Sparks from the Spindle," weekly column in the
Rolla New Era and the Rolla Herald, Rolla, Missouri, 1938-1940.
Some of the same material appeared in a monthly called What Not, pub-
lished at Rolla by Eleanor Tolman in 1942; also in Hillbilly News, printed
at Winslow, Arkansas, by Gene Barnes in 1943-1944. Mrs. Mueller is es-
pecially interested in tales of ghosts and witches.
Oklahoma, a Guide to the Sooner State. Norman, Oklahoma, Univer-
sity of Oklahoma Press, 1941. 442 pp.
Compiled by the Writers' Program of the WPA, sponsored by the Uni-
versity of Oklahoma. "It is in the hills of eastern Oklahoma that the beliefs
and customs of another century are best preserved," we are told. A few
superstitions are listed on pp. 119-120, but most of them have Indian or
Negro references.
Randolph, Vance. "Folk-Beliefs in the Ozark Mountains," Journal
of American Folklore, Vol. 40 (1927), pp. 78-94.
The Ozarks, an American Survival of Primitive Society. New
York, Vanguard Press, 1931. 310 pp.
Chapter V, pp. 87-137, is devoted to "Signs and Superstitions."
"Witches and Witch-Masters," Folk-Say, University of Okla-
homa Press, Norman, Oklahoma, 1931, pp. 86-93.
Reprinted in B. A. Botkin's Treasury of American Folklore (New York,
Crown Publishers, 1944), pp. 692-696.
848 BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ozark Mountain Folks. New York, Vanguard Press, 1982.
279 pp.
Chapter II, pp. 80-41, is a revised version of the "Witches and Witch-
Masters" paper from the 1931 Folk-Say.
"Ozark Superstitions," Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 46
(1933), pp. 1-21.
"The Witch on Bradshaw Mountain/' University Review, Uni-
versity of Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri, June, 1936, pp.
203-206.
This is an account of Angie Paxton, Green Forest, Arkansas, with a draw-
ing of Mrs. Paxton by Thomas Hart Benton.
"Ozark Superstitions," Life, June 19, 1939, pp. 82-83.
With six photos by D. F. Fox, of Galena, Missouri.
"Ozark Superstitions," Click, December, 1939, pp. 20-21.
With nine photos by D. F. Fox, of Galena, Missouri.
Ozark Ghost Stories. Girard, Kansas, Haldeman-Julius Pub-
lications, 1944. 24 pp.
Tall Tales from the Ozarks. Girard, Kansas, Haldeman-Julius
Publications, 1944. 31 pp.
The section entitled "The Taskee Witch" (pp. 20-22) is an account of Mrs.
Josie Forbes of Taskee, Missouri.
Ray, Celia. Many short articles and paragraphs in the Springfield
(Missouri) News fy Leader; also in the Springfiejd (Missouri)
Leader fy Press, 1927-1932.
Celia Ray is not particularly interested in folklore, but she sometimes used
references to Ozark superstition in her regional gossip columns. Under her
real name, Lucile Morris, she wrote Bald Knohbers (Caldwell, Idaho, Cax-
ton Printers, Ltd., 1939; 253 pp.) which is still the best book available on
the Ozark night riders.
Rayburn, Otto Ernest. Numerous short articles and paragraphs,
usually captioned "Ozark Folklore," in Ozark Life (Kingston,
Arkansas, 1925-1930), Tulsa Tribune (Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1930-
1931), Arkansas Gazette (Little Rock, Arkansas, 1930-1931),
Arcadian Magazine (Eminence, Missouri, 1931-1932), Arcadian
Life (Caddo Gap, Arkansas, 1933-1942), and Osark Guide (Eu-
reka Springs, Arkansas, 1943 ).
Rayburn is a schoolmaster from Iowa who wandered into the Ozark coun-
try shortly after World War I and has been here ever since. His writings
deal with folksong, dialect, pioneer dances, play parties, old customs, ghost
BIBLIOGRAPHY 849
stories, and backwoods history of a sort not often found in textbooks. Ray-
burn has done a great deal to arouse popular interest in folk material, and
the files of the little magazines Ozark Life, Arcadian Magazine, Arcadian
Life, and Ozark Guide all of which he edited and published himself are
full of fascinating stuff.
Rayburn's Roadside Chats. Beebe, Arkansas, Underbill Press,
1939. 48 pp.
Ozark Country. New York, Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1941.
352 pp.
This is the fourth volume of the "American Folkways" series edited by
Erskine Caldwell. It is Rayburn's best work a summary of all his writings
about the Ozarks. There are many references to Ozark superstitions, es-
pecially pp. 6-11, 139-147, 156-167, 249-260.
Russell, V. C. "Old Superstitions of the Ozark Mountains," St. Louis
Post-Dispatch, rotogravure section, St. Louis, Missouri, Oct. 31,
1937, p. 2.
Seven posed photographs, illustrating superstitious practices in Taney
county, Missouri. Each picture is accompanied by a brief explanation.
Seabrook, William. "Beheaded Women Sacrificed to Witchcraft?"
American Weekly, New York, July 2, 1944, p. 15.
A fantastic story about the murder of two women near the Lake of the
Ozarks, in Missouri, where the headless bodies were found in April, 1944.
For a typical Ozark reaction to Seabrook's theory of this crime, see an
editorial in the Springfield (Missouri) News $ Leader, July 30, 1944, p. 6.
Shiras, Tom. "Weather Signs in the Ozarks," Arkansas Gazette f
Little Rock, Arkansas, Feb. 20, 1944, pp. 5-6.
Reprinted in Rayburn's Ozark Guide, Lonsdale, Arkansas, Vol. II, No. 8
(October-December, 1944), pp. 51-54. Tom Shiras is a newspaperman who
has lived in Mountain Home, Baxter county, Arkansas, for many years. He
contends that some activities of birds, reptiles, and so on are conditioned by
atmospheric pressure and thus serve as natural barometers.
Simpich, Frederick M. "Missouri, Mother of the West," National
Geographic Magazine, Vol. XLIII, No. 4 (April, 1923), pp. 421-
460.
One short section (pp. 425-428) is devoted to "Missouri Signs and Super-
stitions." EVen this brief reference to the subject aroused the ire of many
Missourians. See the comment on Simpich's article in the Missouri Histor-
ical Review, XVII, 419-434.
Smith, Walter R. "You Can't Tell About the Weather," Folk-Say,
University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Oklahoma, 1930, pp. 173-
185.
850 BIBLIOGRAPHY
Starr, Fred. "Hillside Adventures/' a weekly column in the North-
west Arkansas Times, Fayetteville, Arkansas, May 6, 1937 .
The record is a bit muddled by the fact that Starr's column was formerly
called "Plain Tales from the Hills" and later "Plain Tales from the
Ozarks"; also that the newspaper was formerly known as the Fayetteville
Daily Democrat. Under whatever name, the references to folk belief in
Starr's copy are always worth reading.
From an Ozark Hillside. Siloam Springs, Arkansas, Bar D
Press, 1938. 90 pp.
A selection of Starr's newspaper columns, with a preface by Lessie String-
fellow Read. The book contains one section entitled "Hill Beliefs" (pp. 29-
34), which is concerned with Ozark superstition in general, and another
(pp. 73-75) dealing briefly with herb remedies. See also the items on pp. 22,
23-24, 42, and 72.
Pebbles from the Ozarks. Siloam Springs, Arkansas, Bar D
Press, 1942. 55 pp.
More extracts from Starr's newspaper column. Note especially the refer-
ences to superstitions, pp. 15, 25, 37, 50-53. Starr is a schoolteacher by pro-
fession, writes about the Ozarks in his spare time, and lives on a farm near
Greenland, Arkansas.
"Superstition and Folklore," Clinton Eye Centennial Edition, Clin-
ton, Missouri, Sept. 7, 1936, pp. 3-4.
A list of several hundred Ozark superstitions, without comment.
"Superstition Still Rules in Remote Parts of the Ozarks," Kansas
City Times, Kansas City, Missouri, April 15, 1938, p. 6.
A report of "Folklore and Folkways of the Ozark Region," an "address by
Vance Randolph of Pineville, Mo., delivered at the annual dinner of the
Missouri State Historical Society, Columbia, Missouri, April 14, 1938."
Taylor, Jay L. B. "Luminous Spectre Hunted to Its Lair," Missouri
Magazine, Jefferson City, Missouri, October, 1934, pp. 1112.
A surveyor in Joplin, Missouri, Mr. Taylor thinks that the ghost which so
many people have seen at the Devil's Promenade is produced by the lights
of cars on a distant highway.
Thanet, Octave. "Folklore in Arkansas," Journal of American Folk-
lore, V (April-June, 1892), 121-125.
Octave Thanet was a popular novelist, whose real name was Alice French ;
she spent her winters at Clover Bend, on Black River, in Lawrence county,
Arkansas, for some thirty years previous to World War I. The whites at
Clover Bend, she says, were just as superstitious as the Negroes, but they
took little stock in the black conjurers and conjure doctors. "Charms of all
kinds are favored both by whites and blacks," she writes, "but I observe
BIBLIOGRAPHY 851
that the white charms and the black charms are usually quite different."
Miss French knew one Negro conjurer, "a pious man and a deacon hi the
church," who was supposed to have killed ten persons by his magic.
Thomas, John L. "History of Victoria," Missouri Historical Review,
Columbia, Missouri, II, 1907-1908, 17-22.
The story of Prudence Bevis, also known as "Queen Bevers," an alleged
witch who terrorized people in Jefferson county, Missouri, between 1826
and 1854. Compare the note in the WPA guidebook Missouri, a Guide to the
"Show Me" State (New York, Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1941), p. 534.
Webb, W. L. "Burning Witches in Missouri/' Kansas City Post, Kan-
sas City, Missouri, Jan. 16, 1916, p. 12 A.
Webb says that the Shawnee Indians in southeast Missouri burned witches
at the stake but offers no evidence that white Missourians ever did so. He
tells several good stories of witches and witch masters in Jackson county,
Missouri, and leaves no doubt that many of the pioneers were firm believers
in witchcraft.
Wilson, Charles Morrow. "Folk-Beliefs in the Ozark Hills/' Folk-
Say, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Oklahoma, 1930,
pp. 157-172.
Material from "isolated communities in the Arkansas hill counties of New-
ton, Franklin, Madison, Benton, Carroll, Jackson and Washington, and in
Stone and Taney counties of Missouri."
Backwoods America. Chapel Hill, N.C., University of North
Carolina Press, 1934. 209 pp.
Chapter VI, "Folk Beliefs," pp. 47-60, contains much good material on
Ozark superstitions, most of it from Newton and Washington counties,
Arkansas. Wilson is a native of Arkansas and spent his youth in Fayette-
ville and its environs.
Wolverton, F. E. "The Woman of Taskee/' in Eve's Stepchildren,
edited by Lealon N. Jones. Caldwell, Idaho, Caxton Printers,
Ltd., 19^, pp. 265-271.
Wolverton is a state supervisor of public schools, who lives in Cape Girar-
deau, Missouri. This piece is an account of his interview with Josie Forbes,
of Wayne county, Missouri, known as "the Witch of Taskee."
Index
Abortifacients, 193
Adder, 256
Afterbirth, care of, 202, 203
Ague, remedies, 10T, 133
Ailments which indicate rain, 18
Albino deer, 241
Alcoholics, to quiet nerves of, 113;
to cure, 150 f.
Allsopp, Fred W., 276, 343
Almanac, bad time to hang, 78
Amputated limbs must be buried,
202n
Amulets, 151
Angel wreath, see Feather crowns
Angleworms, 23
Animals, indications of rain in activi-
ties of, 12; forecast cold weather,
26; treatments for ailments of
domestic, 50; ghosts of, 223 ff.,
227; superstitions about plants
and, 240-61; witches disguised as,
268 ff. ; bewitched, 295 ff. ; presage
death, 306, 311; see also under
kinds of animals, e.g., Cats ; Cattle ;
Chickens; Dogs; Hogs; Horses,
etc.
Ant lion, larva of, 269
Aphrodisiac, 112, 163, 166 ff.
Apoplexy, protection against, 114
Appendicitis cure, 95
Applesauce, bad woman can't make
good, 65
Arachnids, 258-60
Arkansas, University of: against law
to teach evolution, 8
Arthritis, prevention, 152
Associated Press ghost story, 221
Asthma cure, 94, 95, 134, 155
Ax under patient's bed, 146, 200, 305
Babies, intestinal disorder, 97 ; treat-
ment for arrested growth, 119; to
determine sex of unborn, 196; pre-
natal influence: fear of "marking,"
196 ff . ; treatment of newborn, 201 ;
premature, 202; swaddling clothes
for boy, 204; for girl, 205; cats
must be kept away from: influence
of day of birth upon character and
prospects, 205; methods of pre-
dicting future, 207; mother im-
mune from disease while nursing
baby, 209; proper time to wean,
210; relationship between snakes
and, 257; stillborn, sold to witches,
281; bewitched, 291; other super-
stitions connected with, 309; see
also Childbirth; Children
Backache, cure, 133 ; to ward off, 156
Bacon, Anna, 311
Baldness, cure, 164
Ball of fire, 305
Bark, direction of scraping for medi-
cines, 95
Barn swallows, 47
Barnes, C. E., 262
Bathing, during menses, 195, 305;
during pregnancy, 195; mother or
newborn baby, 204; before jour-
ney, 305
Bats, bedbugs generated from, 260
Bauersfeld, "Mirandy," 110, 344
Beans, when to plant, 35
Beardon, Lou, 113, 215, 268
Beauty treatments, folk beliefs con-
nected with, 162 ff.
Bedbugs, to rid cabin of, 44, 68; gen-
erated from bats, 260
Bedtime stories for children, 235 ff.
854
INDEX
Bed wetting cure, 102
Bees, care of hives, 44; when death
occurs in family, 45; "Old Christ-
mas hum," 77; to relieve pain of
sting, 101; man who doesn't get
along with, 329
Belden, H. M., 262
Bellyache, protection against, 154
Bennett, Mrs. Henry, 888
Bergen, Fanny D., 107, 152
Berries, 89
Birds, activities indicate weather, 13,
29, 30; to protect domestic fowl
from birds of prey, 43; as good
luck signs, 47 ; superstitions about,
245 ff. ; killed in egg by thunder,
249; presage death, 306 f.; see also
under kinds of birds, e.g. Whip-
poorwill
Birth, see Childbirth
Birthday, ill luck on, 66
Birthmark, to remove, 164
Biscuit, last, 182
Bitters, 106
"Black-oak ghost," 233
Blacksnake, 254
Bladder trouble, 102, 103
Blair, Lewis, 225
Bleeding, to stop, 101, 122 ff., 157
Blood poison, treatment, 101, 132;
prevention, 158
Blood purifiers, 104 ff.
Bloodstains as weather signs, 18
"Blue Eagle" identified with seven-
headed beast of doom, 338
Blue jays, 248
Boar, specter of a black, 226
Bogert, Charles M., 256
Boils, cure, 101, 125, 131, 132
Bold hives or boll hives, 111
Bonebreak, Israel, 256
Booth, Lum, 141
Botkin, B. A., 343
Bowel trouble, treatment, 97, 118;
protection against "summer com-
plaint," 154
Boys born on Old Christmas, 78
Brake, Gallic, quoted, 123
Bray, Jim, 212
Bread, burned, 56; fallen on ground:
crusts, 62
Breadtray Mountain ghost story,
217
Breedon, A. W., 265, 274
Bride, courtship and marriage, 162-
91; dress, 189; must not dress
completely before a mirror, 190
Bridegroom must not put away wed-
ding clothes immediately, 190
Bride's day, see Wedding day
Bright's disease, 103
Broadfoot, Lennis L., 246, 344
Bronchial troubles, cure, 94
Broom, 74
Bruises, 100
Brush, clearing, 40
Bryant, Grandmaw, 288, 296
Buckeyes carried in pockets, 153
Bullbat, 247
Bullets, silver, used for killing
witches, 269, 275, 287, 289; super-
stitions about, 294
Bullet wound, silk handkerchief
pulled through, 119
Bullfrogs, 14
Bunion cure, 132
Burger, Nelle, 324
Burial, 315-27; see also Funeral
Buried treasure, see Hidden treasure
Burns, to draw out fire from, 121
Burying grounds, see Graveyards
Bush planted in another's dooryard,
336
Butter, witches in churn, 294
Butterfly, gray-and-black, 261
Buttons, 61
Buzzards, 29, 245
Cabin, see House
Cake, stirring batter, 63
Calendar, bad time to hang, 78
Calves, weaning: dragged out of pen
tail first, 48
Campbell, Booth, 206
Cancers, treatment, 110, 111, 125, 131,
135; prevention, 165
Candle flame indicates letter, 67
Candle salt, 55
Cantrell, Lee, quoted, 89
Car, phantom, 232
Carbuncles, 101, 125
Carrion crow, 246
INDEX
355
Cartwright, Benjamin A., 343
Cataract cure, 138
Catarrh, to ward off, 153
Catfish, 251
Cathartics, 97
Cats, forecast weather, 12, 26, 30;
good and bad luck, 75 ; cruel treat-
ment of, 75; indicate trend of love
affair, 181, 182; kept away from
new baby, 205; ghosts of, 236;
witches disguised as, 268; in pres-
ence of the dead, 313
Cattle, indicate cloudburst, 12 ; taboo
against mentioning number in herd,
44; against an even number, 45;
time to dehorn, 45 ; finding lost, 48 ;
treatments for ailing, 50; behavior
on Old Christmas, 77, 78; ghosts of,
227; protection against disease,
284; bawling, 306; see also Calves;
Cows
Caul (veil), 203
Cedar boughs, 73
Cedar trees, prejudice against trans-
planting, 307
Cemeteries, see Graveyards
Centipedes, 258
Chamber of Commerce, 332
Change, resistance to, 8
Change of life, 194
Character, physical characteristics
correlated with, 328 ff.
Charms, control of weather by, 30;
as protection against disease, 151
Charm string, 61
Cheenches, see Bedbugs
Cherokee Indians, 252
Cheyenne Indians, rain dances, 30
Chickenpox cure, 147
Chickens, superstitions about, 12,
42 ff., 240; fight, 54; crowing, 306
Chiggers, 260
Chilblains, 109
Childbirth, superstitions connected
with, 75 ; to ease pains, 146, 199 ff.,
805; "buck-brush parsons" try to
help, 161; pregnancy and, 192-210;
afterpains, 202; multiple births,
203; place where it occurs: moon-
light should not fall upon bed, 204 ;
taboo against bathing mother and
palms of baby's hands, 204; hat
burning, 205
Children, folktales repeated to, 6;
number of, one might expect to
bear, 186; reluctance to admit that
they were born crippled or defec-
tive, 204 ; protection from diseases,
154; curse laid upon man who se-
duces little girls, 170; tales told to,
235 ff. ; protection against witches,
291 ; see also Babies ; Childbirth
Chills-and-fever treatment, 107, 183,
146, 156
"Chills-an'-fever doctors," 92
"Chimney-corner laws," 66
Choctaw Indians, weed used in
poisoning fish, 194
Christian County Republican (Ozark,
Mo.), excerpt, 46
Christmas, weather signs, 21; roof
mended during holidays: New
Christmas, 77
Old (Ja. 6), forecasts weather,
22; superstitions connected with,
77 f.
Chronicle (Crane, Mo.), excerpt, 27
Church, R. W., 251
Cider, 65
City men, prejudice against, 328
Civic leaders sensitive about hillbilly
background or reference to super-
stition, 7
Clarke, Naomi, 141
Clearing between sunset and dawn,
15
Clemens, Nancy, 45, 61, 208, 281, 344
Cloth, tearing of, a sign of death, 301
Clothing, superstitions connected
with, 69 f . ; wedding garments,
188 ff.; bewitched, 292; new dress
at funeral, 318; prejudice against
suit, 328
Cockleburs, 23
Coffeepot, taboo on new, 191
Coffin nails in goat's heart, 298
Coffman, Anna L., 123
Colds, remedies, 93 ; to ward off, 154,
156
Cold weather, see Winter
Cole, Roy, 38, 40, 49
Colic cures, 98, 149
856
INDEX
College students, superstitions of, 8
Colt, size of horse he will make : when
first, is a mule: breeder can color,
49
Comb, 76
Comforters, see Quilts
Complexions, to benefit, 162 ff.
Confederate soldier, wild roses bloom
over grave of, 327
Conjure folks, 265, 297; see also
Witch masters
Conjure stuff buried under houses
and doorsteps, 272
Constellations, portions of body as-
sociated with, 34; treatment of
disease tied up with, 116
Convulsions, to relieve, 150
Cooper, John, 244
Copperheads, 255
Corn, to insure rain for crop, 32;
planting, 38
Cornbread cut with knife, 62
Corn doctor, 103
Cornmeal sprinkled over corpse,
315
Cornshucks, thickness of, a weather
sign, 25
Corpse, sits up, 214; cornmeal
sprinkled over, 315; locating, of
drowned person, 316; see also
Dead, the
Cosmetics, use of, 162
Couch, Mo., wave of religious excite-
ment, 338
Courtship and marriage, 162-91
Coverlets, to wash handwoven, 69
Cows, bloody milk, 6, 47, 48, 295, 296;
go dry, 47; afterbirth: finding lost,
48; milked by snakes, 257; see also
Milk
Crab grass lying fiat, 23
Cracks, stepping on, 63
Cralle, W. O., 94, 96, 101, 130, 187,
159, 326, 344
Cradle-rocking, 309
Cramps, prevention, 155
Cream sours, 18
Cricket, bad luck to kill, 259
Croft, A. J., 302
Crops, time for planting, 84 ff.
Cross-eyed woman, 59
Croup, treatment, 93; posthumous
child can cure, 136
Crowns, see Feather crowns
Crows, 30, 246, 249
Cucumbers, planting time, 86
Cummins, Charles, 94, 99; quoted,
247
Cummins, Jim, 285
Cummins, Rube, 126
Cyclones, predictions, 29; best not to
call by name, 32
Daddy longlegs, 260
Dailey, S. T., 141
Dandruff cure, 164
Darnell, F. H., 234
Davis, Ethel, 85
Davis, Homer, 141
Dawn, misty, 15
Days of week, as weather indicators,
18 ; taboo against starting work on
certain, 69; unlucky, 206
Dead, the: care of, 312 f.; burial cus-
toms, 815-27; bad to move after
burial, 326; see also Corpse; Fu-
neral
Dead Man's Hill, 232
Dead Man's Pond, 221
Deafness, cure, 148
Death, protection against, by vio-
lence, 152; and burial, 301-27; pre-
sages of approaching, 301; things
that are done immediately after,
312
Death bells, 302
"Death bones," 302
Death watch or death tick, 302, 314
Deer, superstitions about, 22, 27, 241
Defecating, in path or public road,
7, 304; taboo against eating while,
63; taboo on singing while, 67
De Haven, Pearl, 38, 42, 345; quoted,
50
Delirium, treatment, 114
Departure, superstitions connected
with, 58
Devil, in the buryin' ground, 212;
picture of, on church wall, 229;
appearances, 275; hates salt, 282
"Devil a-whuppin his wife," 17
Devil's-darning-needle, 22
INDEX
857
"Devil's Half Acre," 277
Devil's horse (praying mantis), 259
"Devil's Promenade," 283
DeviFs-shoestring as remedy for
menorrhagia, 194
Devil's snuffbox, 277
Diamond fold avoided in ironing,
69
Diarrhea cure, 97
Diemar, Dr., 88
Digestive troubles, remedies, 95-96,
97
Diphtheria cure, 94
Dirt dobbers, 260
Disease, means of preventing, 151
Dishrag milking, 270
Distemper cure, 61
Dizziness remedy, 114
Dobyns, Deacon, 29
Doctors, see Physicians; Power doc-
tors; Yarb doctors
Dog days, 19, 142; effect upon snakes,
256
"Dog run" avoided during electrical
storm, 72 f .
Dogs, name a good dog after a bad
man, 50; cures for ailments, 51; to
keep at home, 52 ; rolls before door,
54; tails draw lightning, 72; mad-
stone treatment for bite of, 140 ff. ;
ghosts of, 224 ff., 237, 275; howling,
306 ; man who doesn't make friends
with, 329
Dogwood tree cursed by Jesus, 262
Doodlebug, 259
"Doodlebugs," 88
Door, leaving by same, through
which entered, 58
Doorway cut after house is built, 74
Dove, first of season, 245
Dream interpretations, 330 ff.
Dress, to get a new, 69; new, at
funeral, 318; see also Clothing
Drowned persons, locating bodies,
816
Drug addiction uncommon, 115
Drunkards, see Alcoholics
Dumb or dummy, supper, 178 ff.
Duelap, Charles, 316
Dusenbury, Emma, 60
Dwelling, see House
Earache remedies, 108, 145
Ears, burn, 54; time to pierce, 164
Easter weather signs, 19
Eating while urinating or defecating,
63
Eels, superstitions about, 250
Eggs, superstitions about, 42 f.
Egg shells, unusual marks on, 338 f.
Egg tree, 285
Elderberry sprouts on eve of Old
Christmas, 77, 78
Election, to predict result, 337
"Electric springs," 332
England, folk beliefs from, 4
Epileptic fits, treatment, 110, 119,
154
Epsom salts, 97
Eruption, cure, 136
Esquire, 7
Etterman, A. D., 161
Evolution, against law to teach, at
University of Arkansas, 8
Explosion, no quail hatched after,
249
Eye (Clinton, Mo.), 187
Eyes, protruding, 48; itching, 64;
significance of color, 190
Eyestrain, cured, 133
Eye troubles, cures, 138 ff.
"Face whitenin'," 162
Fair Grove, Mo., picture of Devil on
church wall, 229
Farris, Dorothy, 95
Feather crowns or balls, 272, 820-26
Feathers, thickness of, 25
Federal Writers' Project, 343
Feeble-minded person successful in
growing certain crops, 36
Feeble-mindedness, treatment, 114
"Feedin' the Devil an' starvin' God,"
63
Feet, sore, 109
"Female troubles," medicines for,
194
Fence posts, 42
Fevers, to reduce, 107; to cure, 188,
146
Financial loss, protection against,
155
858
INDEX
Finger, Charles J., 80, 260, 826, 845;
quoted, 90
Fingernails, cutting: white spots, 66
Fire, spits and sputters, 25, 58, 304;
stirring, 62; looking directly into,
71; ball of, 305
Fish and fishing, 250 ff .
Fish-and-milk poisoning, 115
Fits, treatment, 110, 119, 154
Fleas, to rid cabin of, 44, 68
Flying squirrel, 244
Fog as weather sign, 15, 23
Folklore, collection of, 4 ff.
Folklore of Romantic Arkansas
(Allsopp), 276
Forbes, Josie, 185, 265
Force, Harry N., 122
Fortunes, told by means of Bible,
184
Fortunetellers, 184
Fowl, indicate rain, 12, 13; magic
tricks to protect, 43; see also
Chickens; Geese; Turkeys
Fox, D. F., 288
Fox, ghostly white, 226; charm
squirrels and turkeys, 242; hounds
can't trail a pregnant, 242
"Fox-fire lights," 235
France, Isabel, 843, 345
Freckles, to remove, 162, 163
French, Gram, 290
Frogs, 14
Frost, predictions of, 10, 22 ff.
Fruit, dangerous to eat out of season,
157
Fruit trees, time for planting, 38;
see also Trees
Fulks, Clay, 337
Funeral, burial customs, 315-27;
preachin's deferred, 317; new
dress: weather, 318; avoid count-
ing vehicles, crossing procession,
or colliding with hearse, 319
Fur, thickness of, weather sign, 25
Galbraith, Emma, 216
Gars, 251
Gastric ulcers, cure, 95
Gate, to close when found open, 59
Geese, 44; meeting flock, 59; struck
by lightning, 73
Gentry, John Proctor, 126
George, Carrie, 219
"Ghost of Paris," 221
Ghosts, stories of, 211-39; hanged
men's, 217, 218; of animals, 223 ff.,
227; dogs, 224 ff., 237, 275; specter
of black hog, 226; tales told to
children, 235 ff. ; ghosts of horses,
237; when and where they prefer
to appear, 237 ; way to address and
to lay, 238
Glauber's or horse salts, 97
Globe (Joplin, Mo.), 338
Goats, 47
Goat's rue used to poison fish, 194
Goddard, Floyd C., quoted, 46
Goiter cure, 125, 148
Golden Book Magazine, 276
Gonorrhea cure, 150
Goomer doctors, 265; see also Witch
masters
Goosebone weather prophets, 10, 25
Goose walking over grave, 326
Gordon, J., 224
Goudy, Fred, 87
Grains, Time for sowing, 37
Granny- women, 192, 196, 199-203
passim
Grapes, 40
Grave, when it should be dug, 317
Graves, A. J., quoted, 235
"Graveyard lights," 233 ff.
Graveyards, ghost stories, 211 ff.,
223 ; superstitions about, 326-27
"Green Christmas," 77
Grieving, protracted, 320
Griffin, Johnny, 229
Ground gives signs of weather, 16
Groundhog, 243
Groundhog Day, date of, 27 ff.
Growth, treatment for arrested, 119
Grubs, 23
Gums, to cure bleeding, 145
Gunpowder, fed to dogs, 51; as cure
for diphtheria, 94
Hair, treatment and superstitions
about, 164 ff.
INDEX
8*9
Hair ball, 271
"Hair of the dog that bit you," 142
Hairpin, 60
Hands, itching, 64; lotion for
chapped, 109
Haney, Mrs. W. H., quoted, 322
Hanged men's ghosts, 21T, 218
Hannay, John A., 228
Hartrick, George, quoted, 86
Harvard, John, 82
Harvest fly, 240
Haswell, A. M., 85
Hat, 74
Hat-burning ceremony at birth of
boy, 205
Haunted houses, 214, 219, 220, 222,
223, 230
Hawks, 248
Hawthorn, wild (redhaw), 262
Hay, cutting, 41
Hay fever, patients reliable weather
prophets, 23; cure, 94
Headache, cure, 120; conjured off,
133; "sun pain," 135
Head catarrh, to relieve, 135
Headless dogs, 224, 225
Headless ghost stories, 228
Head noises, remedy, 114
Healers, power doctors, 121-61
Health ruined by witches, 279
Heavenly crowns, see Feather crowns
Hemorrhage, to stop, 124
Hemorrhoids, treatment, 99; protec-
tion against, 153
Hemp, 115
"Hen-egg revivals," 338
Henley-Barnett feud, 299
Hens, see Chickens
Herb collecting and marketing, 112
Hibler, J. J., 140
Hiccoughs, to stop, 100, 148
Hidden treasure, use of witch stick
to locate, 88; ghost stories about,
219, 220, 227
Hilburn, May S., 57, 61, 76, 116, 345;
quoted, 146, 163, 179, 204, 210, 285,
301, 302, 321, 327
Hill, Bob, 234
Hillbilly, see Ozark hillfolk
Hives, to prevent, 111
Hoe carried into house, 73, 305
Hogs, as weather prophets, 12, 80;
good hog raiser, 45; feeding, 46;
mule-footed, 46; tonic, 50; in road,
59; specter of a black hog, 226;
story told to children, 235
Hogue, Wayman, 243, 346
Holidays, superstitions connected
with, 77 if. ; see also Christmas ;
Easter; New Year
Holler horn and holler tail, cures for,
50
Holy Rollers, prayers for govern-
ment weather prophets, 11; pray
for rain, 30; treatment of the sick,
160; refrain from sexual inter-
course first night after marriage,
191 ; willing to attempt to exorcise
specter, 238; bring poisonous
snakes into pulpit, 257; vagaries,
267; denunciation of "Blue Eagle"
of NR A, 337 f. ; of sugar ration-
ing, 338
Hoop snake, 254
Hoppinjohn, 80
Horehound, 93
Hornets, 259
Hornets' nest, 75
Horsehair, turned into snake, 253;
sieve of, a protection against
witches, 284
Horsemen, phantom, 231, 232
Horses, indicate cloudburst, 12 ; eyes,
48; if name is changed, 49; cures
for ailments, 50 ; red-haired girl on
a white, 60 ; ghosts of, 237 ; protec-
tion against disease, 284 ; give sign
of death, 306; honest man never
rides a sorrel, 329; see also Colt
Horse salts, 97
Horseshoe, as good or bad-luck sign,
62; over door, 283
House, old and new lumber to be
used, 74
Household superstitions, 53-81; in-
dications of weather, 16; see also
Weather signs
Household tasks pregnant woman
may or may not attend to, 195
Hovey, Carl, 888
860
INDEX
Human body, cursing a part of, 279
Humor in folk beliefs. 238
Husband, falls ill when wife is preg-
nant, 195
Husband-to-be, to learn identity and
characteristics of, 173 ff. ; May Day
search for, 175 ff., 185, 186; occu-
pation, 177
Hypodermic medication, fear of, 115
Hysteria, treatment, 110, 114
Impotent, to render a man, 280
Incantations, control of weather by,
30
"Indian lights," 233 ff.
Indians, superstitions inherited from,
4; rain dances, 30; root and weed
used in poisoning fish, 153, 194;
leave best fish on bank, 252; eat
land turtles, 253; burial customs,
316
Infantile paralysis, prevention, 154
Influenza, to ward off, 154
Insects, forecast rain, 14; forecast
frost, 22; to repel, 68; odd notions
concerning, 258-61
Insomnia remedy, 114
Intestinal troubles, remedies, 95
Ironing, diamond fold avoided in, 69
Ironwood tree, 261
Itching of nose, hand, or eyes, 54
Itch remedies, 109
Ivy poisoning, cure, 110
Jackson, J. O., 84
Jackson, Noel ., 141
Jackson, "Red," 152
January 1, see New Year's Day
January 6, see Christmas, Old
Jaundice remedies, 107
Jealousy, detecting, 171
Jefferson Memorial, 323
Jesus Christ to run for President,
839
Johnson, Mary, 101
Johnson, W. H., 88
Jones, Frank, 232
Jones, Glenn, 116
Jones, J. M., 87
Journal-Pott (Kansas City), 141
Journey, starting on, 59
Judas tree (redbud), 263
Jujus, 170
Juvenile ghost tales, 235 ff.
Kansas City Times, 87
Katydids, 32, 38
Keithley, "Doc," 62
Keller, C. C., 35
Kelley, Lewis, 96, 114, 211, 260, 305
Kerr, Jim, 31
Kidney ailments, 102, 103, 104
King snake, 255
Kinney, Nat N., 318
Kissing, taboos, 181
Knife, 58
Lakey, Jake, 225
Lard, rendering, 64
Laudanum, 114
Laugh before breakfast, 67
Lawson, Roberta, 263
Laxative, 105
Leader (Springfield, Mo.), excerpt,
28
Leader $ Press (Springfield, Mo.),
excerpt, 247
Leg cramps, cure, 150
Lehman, Ed., 246
Letter signs, 67
Life, to prolong, 112
Lightning, 71 ff.; in south, 15
Lights, moving, 233 ff.
Lillie, Margaret, 253
Little Creek cemetery pillar of fire,
235
Livestock, superstitions connected
with, 45-51; see also Cattle; Cows
"Locked bowels," treatment, 118
Lockjaw, prevention, 101, 158
Locusts, foretell frost, 22; summer
locust, 240; black W on wings, 887
"Lord God Peckerwood," 248
Lord's Prayer, reversing, 266
Louse, first found on baby's head,
336
Love charms and medicines, 166 ff.;
see also Aphrodisiac
Lover, to see, in a few hours, 188
Love sickness, cure for, 169
INDEX
861
Lucky signs, 70 ff. passim
Lumbago, to ward off, 156
Lunatics regarded as witches, 265
Lung trouble, see Tuberculosis
Lye, 64
Lynch, Miriam, 206, 286; cure for
dog's sore mouth, 51, 61
Lyon, Marguerite, 256, 346
McBride, Dinnie B., 85
McCord, May Kennedy, 69, 86, 108,
122, 124, 126, 134, 149, 156, 200, 211,
222, 235, 284, 313, 323, 325, 331, 337,
843, 346, 347; quoted, 19, 32, 193,
194, 307, 310, 311, 324
McCoy, Fred, 232
McCullah, Wesley, 197
MacDonald, A. B., 234
McDowell family ha'nt, 233
McGrath, Ora, 21
Madstone treatment for rabies, 140 ff.
Magic, 121
Magic words against witches, 286
Mahnkey, Mary Elizabeth (Mrs.
C. P.), 42, 43, 65, 71, 93, 96, 102,
148, 165, 179, 203, 217, 218, 225, 241,
275, 284, 302, 317, 318, 328, 330;
quoted, 180 f ., 309 f., 331
Malaria, cure, 107, 133, 134
Marijuana, 115
Marmot, yellow-bellied, 243
Marriage, 170-91
Marriage ceremony, see Weddings
Marriages predicted by means of
Bible, 184
Marshbanks, Clarence, 329
Marvel Cave, 242
Maryland, belief in ghosts and witch-
craft, 237
Mate, future, see Husband-to-be
Mathes, Frances (Mrs. W. D.
Mathes), 63, 308
Matthews, Addah, 162, 172
Mattock in house, 73
Maxwell, Molly, 121
May Day search for future mate,
175 ff., 185, 186
Mayes, Mrs. J. H., quoted, 323
Meadows, Rube, 316
Measles, remedies for, 107
Medicine, 92-120; physiological phe-
nomena correlated with phases of
moon, 115
Meinzer, O. E., 91
Mencken, H. L., 237
Meningitis, prevention, 154
Menorrhagia, remedy for, 194
Menstruation, taboo against pickling
cucumbers during, 65; supersti-
tions connected with, 181, 804;
cure for irregular, 194; taboo on
bathing, 195
Mental aberration, treatment, 114
Mice, 12
Middlebush, F. A., 86
Midwives, see Granny-women
Milk, bloody, 6, 47, 48, 295, 296; sour-
ing, indicates rain, 18; prejudice
against sweet, 46 ; to prevent sour-
ing, 73
Milk snake, 257
Milky Way, 30
Mines, search for lost, 88
Mirror, framed on three sides used
by witches, 281; bad to break, 801;
to see face of absent friend in, 304 ;
baby must not see its reflection, 809
Misfortunes go in threes, 76
Missouri, legal and official Ground-
hog Day established, 27; state
flower, 262
Missouri Historical Society, 823
Mistletoe, 73, 261
Moccasins, 255
Months, weather signs for, 19
Moon, falling, 11; as weather sign,
15, 29; planting in dark or light of,
84 ff.; other work governed by
phases of, 41 f . ; favorable for mov-
ing, 74; first glimpse of new, 76;
new, conjured to reveal future
mate, 174, 175; rules time for wed-
dings, 186; favorable period for
molding bullets, 294
Moonlight, misfortune to be born in,
or to sleep in, 204
Moore, Tom, 217, 219, 231, 847;
quoted, 215
Mop and broom, crossing of, 284
Morgan, John, 280
862
INDEX
Morris, Luclle, 318
Mosquitoes protect squirrels, 240
Mother, bathing after childbirth, 204;
proper feeding of a nursing, 209;
immune from disease while nurs-
ing baby, 209; see also Childbirth;
Pregnancy
Moths, to rid beehive of, 44
Moving, time for, 74
Moyer-Wing, Alice C., 21
Mueller, Mabel E., 12, 16, 24, 55, 278,
293, 296, 297, 343, 344, 347; quoted,
290, 291
Mule, splitting tail, 50; red-haired
girl on a white, 60
Mumps, to avoid, 155
Murdered men, ghosts, 219, 220, 223;
to insure punishment of murderers,
316
Murrell, Paul, 11
Mushrooms, 40
Mussels, 252
Mysterious Tales and Legends of the
Ozarks (Moore), 219
Nail, rusty, treated to- prevent tet-
anus, 168
"Nature doctors," 92
Needle, to break while sewing for
self, 69
Negro, Ozark hillfolk have slight
contact with, 4; love charms, 170;
bawls three times before death, 311
Nephritis, many children die of, 120
Nervous diseases, 110
Nervousness, remedy, 114
Neuralgia, to relieve, 150 ; to prevent,
152
Neuritis, to relieve, 150
New Deal, 337
News (Springfield, Mo.), excerpt, 86
News, signs of, 68
News $ Leader (Springfield, Mo.)j
11, 302; excerpts, 193, 194, 235, 309,
810, 322, 323
News bees, 68
New Year's Day, superstitions con-
nected with, 78 ff.; traditional
dinner, 80; baby born on, 206
New Year weather signs, 21
Nickerson Ridge, headless ghost of,
228
Night air, poisonous, 157
Nightmares, 332
Noises presaging death, 301 ff.
Nosebleed, to stop, 124, 145, 154
Nose itches, 54
NRA "Blue Eagle" identified with
seven-headed beast of doom, 338
Nursing, belief that mother is im-
mune from disease while, 209
Nut crop indicates cold weather, 26
"Oil witch," 88
Oklahoma, state tree, 263
Old Christmas, see Christmas, Old
Old maid signs, 182
"Old Raw Head," 228
O'Neill, Clink, 21
O'Neill, Rose, 76, 167, 320
Onions, not planted near potatoes,
35
Onion skin, 26, 71
Operations, governed by signs of the
zodiac, 116
Opium, 114
Opossums, 240
Osage Indians, 153, 253; burial cus-
tom, 316
Oversexed person, 172
Owl, cry of, unfavorable, 245; in
cabin, 307
Ozark Country (Rayburn), 228
Ozark Fantasia (Finger), 90
Ozark hillfolk, origin : characteristics,
3, 6ff.; origin of superstitions, 4;
superstitiousness decreasing, 8
Palmer, Omar, 104
Panthers, 243
Paralysis cure, 149
Parnell, Jim, 328
Patterson, of Carter county, Mo., 84
Pawpaw as food and bait, 251
Pawpaw conjure, 289
Pawpaw tree connected with witch-
craft and devil worship, 261
Paxton, Angie, 185, 265
Payne, Frank, 242
Peach crop, 39
INDEX
868
Peach tree, planting, 39; bad luck to
burn, 304
Peacock feathers, T8
Peas, black-eyed, for New Year's
dinner, 79, 80
Peddler 's ghost, 219
Penny, wearing a green, 153
Pennyroyal, 261
"Pennywinkle," 236
Pentecostal cult, prays for rain, 80
Pepper, superstitions about, 56, 75
Peppers, planting, 36
Perriman, Jewell, 147, 156, 158, 159
Persimon seed, 20
Petree, "Frost," 112
Physical characteristics correlated
with character, 328 ff.
Physicians, "chills-an'-fever doctors,"
protected and advised by, 92; reg-
ular and irregular, 92; prejudice
against, 115; not wanted at child-
birth, 192
Physiological phenomena, correlated
with phases of the moon, 1 15
Pick and shovel crossed on grave,
327
Pickens, Marion B., 307
Pickled cucumbers, menstruation
spoils, 65
Pigs, castration, 45; ghosts of, 226,
227; see also Hogs
Piles, cure, 99; protection against,
153
Pillar of fire, 235
Pin, finding, 60
Pinkeye, 138
Pipes, G. H., 31, 288
Planks, 42
Plants, superstitions about, 261-63
Plummer, E., 230
Pneumonia, remedies, 93, 94
Poisoning, treatment, 96
Poleta, Eliza, 324
Politicians sensitive about hillbilly
background or reference to super-
stition, 7
Possum walking over grave, 326
Post-Dispatch (St. Louis), 22; ex-
cerpt, 323
Potatoes, when to plant and when to
dig, 34^ 35
Poultices, 92
Powell, Truman, 84
Power doctors, 121-61
Prather, A. S., quoted, 328
Praying mantis (Devil's horse), 259
Pregnancy, and childbirth, 192-210;
bad to bathe often or to cross run-
ning stream, 195; prenatal influ-
ences, 196 ff . ; involves loss of a
tooth, 203; see also Childbirth
Prejudices, 328 ff.
Prenatal influence, 196 ff.
Press (Springfield, Mo.), 25; ex-
cerpt, 28
Privy, eating or drinking in, 63
Prostitutes, 150, 151
Purgatives, 96
Quarrel, signs of, 56 ff.
Quilting bee superstitions, 185
Quilts, mending, 69; turning frame,
70
Rabbit, 12, 14, 24, 29; crossing path,
244; walking over grave, 326
Rabies, madstone treatment, 140 ff.
Rail fences, 41
Rain, predictions of, 10; signs, 11;
efforts to produce, 30 ; on wedding
day and at funeral, 318
Rainbow, 15
Rain crow, 248
Rain dances, 30
Raindrops, size indicates weather, 17
Rain maker, 31
Randolph, Vance, 347; "throwed a
curse" and ruined family, 289
Rankin, J. W., 87
Rascoe, Burton, 18; quoted, 90
Rats, 244
Rattlesnake, 255
"Raw Head and Bloody Bones," 236
Rayburn, Otto E., 27, 37, 40, 52, 67,
84, 86, 109, 110, 178, 217, 223, 228,
254, 284, 292, 304, 343, 348, 349;
quoted, 48, 70, 123, 132, 135, 155,
198
Rayburn's Ozark Guide, excerpt, 325
Rectal troubles, cures, 99
Redbirds, ha'nted by, 245
Redbud (Judas tree), 263
304
INDEX
Red-haired girl on white horse or
mule, 60
Redhaw (wild hawthorn), 262
Religious excitement, waves of, 338
Republican (Springfield, Mo.), ex-
cerpt, 229
Return to house for forgotten object,
58
Reynolds, Fred C., 234
Rheumatism, cures, 72, 107, 133; pre-
vention, 151, 152, 153
Rice, Will, 20; quoted, 32
Ridgeway, Walter, 80
Rifles, 74; bewitched, 293; buried
with the dead, 315
Ringworms, 110; conjured off, 131
Road, haunted, 233
Roebuck, Mrs. George, 149
Roosters, see Chickens
Root-and-herb broker, 112
Roots, used as tonics and blood puri-
fiers, 104 ff.; collecting and market-
ing, 112
"Rubbin' doctors," 92
Rutledge photographs, 268
Ryland, C. T., 154
Sabbath, 241; working on, 77
Sage, planting, 36
St. John, Oakley, 120, 135; quoted,
82, 202
Salt, superstitions about, 55 f ., 75 ;
witch, devil, and bewitched cattle
will not touch, 282
Sang raising, 112
Sassafras, 64, 70; tea from roots, 104;
tree sprouts from grub worms,
261 ; burning of, 304
Scotland, folk beliefs from, 4
Scott, Rufe, 29
Scott, W. H., 309
Screech owl, cry of, unfavorable, 245 ;
in cabin, 307
Seasons, weather signs for, 21 ff., 27,
29
Sedatives, 113
Seers, 184
Sentinel (Oregon, Mo.), 29
Seventh son, 207
Sewing, 69
Sex life, superstition connected with,
55,75
Sexual attraction, decreased, 166
Sexual debility, specific for, 112
Sexual intercourse, taboo first night
after marriage, 191
Sexual misadventures, trees con-
nected with, 263
Sexual passions, arousing (aphrodis-
iac), 112, 163, 166 ff.
Sexual unions between humans and
animals, 203
Shakes (shingles), 41
Sharp, Clarence, 278
Sharp, Palmer E., 222
Sharp, Will, 221
Shears, William, 234
Sheep, 47
Shingles, fear of, 146; cure, 147
Shingles for building ("shakes"), 41
Shockey, Hershel, 151
Shoes, superstitions about, 63, 74
Short, Blaine, 45
Short, Elbert, 22, 32, 78, 259, 311;
quoted, 25
Short, Jack, 27, 35, 37, 40, 46, 107
Short, Lillian, 43
Sickbed superstitions, 310
Sideache cure, 133
Singing, unlucky times for, 67
Singing ghost, 215 *
Sinusitis, 135
Sissy, ghost of, 220
Skin, care of, 162 ff.
Skin cancers, 110, 125
Skin diseases, 109; treatment, 111
Skunk, 243
Skunk oil, 93
Sleepwalker, never awaken, 332
Slugs, see Bullets
Smallpox remedy, 147
Smith, Al, 387
Smith, Bryce B., 87
Smith, Logan, 234
Smith, Mrs. M. R., quoted, 124
Snake bite, 102; treatment for, 158
Snake doctor, 240, 257
Snakes, 14, 253-58; to drive from
house, 68; superstition about kill-
ing, 159; poisonous, 255; effect of
INDEX
865
dog days upon, 256; relationship
between babies and, 257
Sneezing, 55
Snip, Gerrit, 111
Snow, predictions of, 23 ff.; duration,
26
Soap-making, 64
Somnambulism, 332
Sons, superstitions about, 207
Soporifics, 113
Sore mouth, cure for dog with, 51;
for babies, 136
Sores, cures, 110, 125, 131, 132
Sorrel horse, honest man never rides,
329
Sounds of trains or bells forecast
weather, 18
Sparks from a chimney, 185
Spasms, to relieve, 150
Spiders, 259, 260
Spider webs, initials in, 75
Spirits, evil: to protect new house
from, 284
Spirits, wandering, see Ghosts
Spoon, in road, 60
Spradley, Isabel, 77, 208, 271
Sprains, 100
Spring, signs of, 29
Springs indicate weather, 16
Spring water, superstitions concern-
ing, 332
Sprouts, killing, 40, 41
Squirrel, flying, 244
Squirrels, superstitions about, 240;
charmed by foxes, 242
Stake driven in another's dooryard,
336
Stalactites and stalagmites deadlier
than stones, 332 f .
Star, falling, 305
Starr, Belle, 315
Starr, Fred, 150, 350
Stars indicate weather, 16
State flower, Missouri, 262
State tree, Oklahoma, 263
Stepmother struck by ghost, 218
Sterile, to render a woman, 280
Stiff joints, treatment, 108
Stinginess, signs of, 328
Stocking feet, 74
Stomach troubles, remedies, 95
Stones, lucky, 60
Storms, see Lightning; Rain; Thun-
der
Sty, treatment, 138
Sugar cane, planting, 38
Sugar rationing, preaching against,
338
Summer complaint, cure, 97; protec-
tion against, 154
Summer locust, 240
Summers, Rudolph, 325
Sun (New York), 90
Sunday, 241 ; working on, 77
Sun indicates weather, 14, 17
"Sun pain," 135
Sunstroke, Jimson-weed leaves as
protection against, 114
Supernatural tales, see Ghosts
Superstition, no correlation between
intelligence and, 6
Surgery, fear of, 115
Surprising Account of the Devil's
Appearing . . . , 276
Swallows, barn, 47
Sweat flies, 68
Sweeping, 70
Sweetheart, testing faithfulness of,
172
Swelling, to reduce, 101
Syphilis, cure, 150; to ward off, 152
Syphilitic lesions, 110
Talbott, Will, 11
Taney County Republican, 337
Tape-worms, to expel, 107
Taylor, Del, 242
Teas from roots and barks as tonics
and blood purifiers, 104 ff.
Teeth extractions, governed by signs
of the zodiac, 116
Teething made easier, 144
Telegraph wire, cut for rings and
anklets, 152
Tenth son, 207
Tetanus, to prevent, 101, 158
Tetter, remedy, 109
Thief looks into cup before he drinks,
329
Thomas, Rex, 161
866
INDEX
Thrash or thresh, to cure, 186; to
prevent, 187
Three, misfortunes go in threes, 76
Throat ailments, remedies, 98, 184
Thunder, 28, 72; kills birds in the
egg, 249
Ticks, 260, 261
Time, excerpt, 838
Toad, killing, 6, 48
Tobacco used by yarb doctors, 98
Tolliver, Grandmaw, 800
Tongue-tied child, cure, 148
Tonics, 104 if.
Toothache cures, 143
Tornadoes, predictions of, 29; best
not to call by name, 32
Towel, when two use, 57
Trachoma, 188
Tracks, to step in another's, 60
Trailer, Mae, 231
Treasure, search for lost, buried, or
hidden, 88, 219, 220, 227
Treasury of American Folklore, A
(ed. Botkin),343
Trees, indicate weather, 16; trans-
planting, 88, 307; touching with
^ax, 40; felling, 41; other strange
theories about, 261-63, 337; Okla-
homa's official state tree, 263; pre-
sage death, 307 ff.
Tree toads, 14
Tree worship, suggestion of, 263
Tuberculosis, treatment, 94; preven-
tion, 153
Tumors, 125, 131
Turkeys, as weather indicators, 12;
charmed by foxes, 242 ; desert nests
after thunderstorm, 249
Turner, Tomp, 228
Turtle dove, 248
Turtles, 258
"Twelfth Night," 77
Twins associated with tragedy and
misfortune, 203
Tyler, Ruth, quoted, 325
Typhoid, treatment, 96
Ulcers, cure, 125
Umbrella, 76
Underbrush, clearing, 40
Unlucky signs, 69 ff. passim
United States Geological Survey, 91
Urinating, taboo against eating while,
63; against singing, 67
Urination, remedy for scanty or diffi-
cult, 102
Utensils returned unwashed, 57
Van Zandt, Jimmy, quoted, 93
Vegetables, time for planting, 34 ff. ;
burning hulls or skins, 71 ; danger-
ous to eat out of season, 157
Vegetation indicates weather, 16, 20
Veil (caul), 203
Venereal disease, cures, 110, 150, 151;
protection against, 150 ff.
Vessels returned unwashed, 57
Vinegar from molasses and rain
water, 64
Violence, protection against, 155
Virginity, to detect, 170
Virility, to destroy, 280
Virtue, testing female, 171
Visitor, signs and portents of advent,
53; on New Year's Day, 78
Wade, Dr., 117
Wadell, J. O., quoted, 25
Wahoo tea, 313
Wales, Harold, 243
Wallace, Jean, 265
Walnut shells, burning, 71
Wart cures, 126 ff.
Wasson, J. A., 197
Waterfinders, 6, 82-91
Watermelons, planting, 86
"Water Surveyors' Club," 86
Water turns into wine, 77
Water witches, 6, 82-91
Watt, Betrenia, 84, 102
Wealth, superstitions relating to, 329
Weapons bewitched, 293
Weather, signs, 10-33; control of, by
charms and incantations, 30; rain
on wedding day and at funeral, 318
Weather prophets, government, 10
Webber, Willie, 222
Wedding day, 187
Wedding garments, 188 ff.
Wedding ring, 187
Weddings, signs and omens con-
nected with, 186
INDEX.
867
Wells, indicate weather, 16; water
turns into wine, 77
Whippoorwill, 245, 247; presages
death, 306
Whirlwind, 18, 59
White, W. S., 248
White-livered, meaning, 172
White moth the spirit of a grand-
parent, 223
White River Leader (Branson, Mo.),
excerpt, 180 f.
White River nudists, 268
Whittaker, Granny, 298
Whooping cough, remedy, 105; pre-
vention, 155, 156
Widow, white-livered, 172
Wilbur, Marie, 206
Wildcats, 242
Wilder, Hugh, 313
Williams, Bettie, 86
Williams, E. A., 86
Williford, C. C, 10
Willow cursed by Jesus, 262
Wilson, Annie K., 197
Wilson, Coral A., 55, 68, 107, 135, 216
Wilson, Effa M., 174
Wilson, Sarah, 271
Wind, indicates rain, 18; to split, 33
Windstorms, predictions, 29 ; best not
to call by name, 32
Wine, 65; water turns into, 77
Winter, weather forecasts, 10, 22 ff. ;
determining end of, 27, 29
Wishes, "git-your-wish" class of
superstitions, 333 ff.
Witch, definition, 264; how to be-
come, 265; initiation, 267; dis-
guises, 268 ff. ; ways of casting
spells, 271; of killing enemies,
271 ff., 279 ff.; ways of detecting,
281; eats little salt, 282; can be-
come invisible, 283; prophylactics
against, 283 ff.
Witch ball, 271, 277
Witch chicken, 277
Witchcraft, 264-300; way of detect-
ing, 282
Witchcraft "carriers," 266
Witches' broom, 261
Witches' cradles, 277
"Witches' Sabbath," 267
"Witches' sixpence," 268
Witches' stirrups, 277
Witch killer, see Witch masters
Witch masters, 265, 282, 297; meth-
ods of destroying witches, 287 ff. ;
charm broken, 290
"Witch of Taskee," 185
"Witch peg," 285
Witch rings, 289
Witch sticks, 82
Witch wigglers, 82
Wolves, 12
Women, witch wigglers, 84, 85;
medicines for diseases of, 194
Woodpecker, pileated, 248
Wood ticks, to ward off, 156
Words, magic: against witches, 286
Worms, remedy for intestinal and
rectal, 106; turpentine as medicine,
120; charm to kiU, 137
Wounds, 100, 101
Wraith, to see, of a living person, 309
Wrens, 249
Yankee soldier, green brier grows
over grave of, 327
Yankee spy ghost, 216
Yarb doctor, 92; kin to witch and
preacher, 108; seldom poisons any-
body, 117
Year, weather signs for, 21
Yeast, 57
Young, J. H., Ill, 116, 201, 209, 242
Zodiac, signs of: determine dates for
planting, 34 ff. ; portions of human
body associated with, 34; treat-
ment of disease tied up with, 116